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CDIVRIGHT DEPOSm 



The Teacher 



BY 

FLORENCE MILNER 

DETROIT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL 
DETROIT. MICHIGAN 



SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 

CHICAGO NEW YORK 



v^^°^^ 



Copyright, 1912 

BY 

SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 



-/' 



©CI.A3<JV61 



CHAPTER I 
WHY DOES ONE TEACH? 

The influences that have obtained in recruiting the vast 
army of teachers are infinite in variety. Some have taken up 
the work with definite purpose, some are teachers by acci- 
dent. A large number, especially among the women, have 
drifted into the ranks with no very definite idea as to how 
or why they are there or how long they may remain. 

But no matter whence these teachers come, no matter why, 
they should, being committed to the profession, consider 
carefully what it has to offer either as an occupation for a 
few years or for a life work. To the man, the situation pre- 
sents one problem ; to the woman, a different one entirely. 

There was a time when teaching offered to the young man 
a natural stepping-stone to a wider or, at least, a different 
career. If he expected eventually to be a min- 
ister, doctor, lawyer, or a business man, two or J^^r^*fyJen° 
three years in the school-room was considered 
excellent preparation, and not a waste of time. Today it 
is necessary for a young man to select his chosen profession 
early and to enter upon it as soon as possible. All time 
spent in any other direction is deemed worse than thrown 
away. Competition is too great to admit of any but the 
direct road. 

This condition of affairs cuts off from the number of 
school men many naturally brilliant and well equipped, 
who, in former times, did excellent work in the school-room 
for short periods. 

7 



8 THE TEACHER 

Now and then today there is a young man who still finds 
teaching the first open door to wider activity and broader 
culture. He teaches a year or two, saves a little money, 
growing a little bigger each month, until he sees other 
and more profitable opportunity for his increasing powers 
opening before him. This young man does not have much 
knowledge of pedagogy, often has no experience at all, 
but he brings something vital, virile, to the school-room 
which more than balances lack in technical requirements. 
What he brings counts for more than normal school train- 
ing, a teacher's diploma from college, or than a head full 
of books on psychology, pedagogy, child study, and meth- 
ods of discipline, good as they may be in their place. 

For him who would make teaching his life work, there 
are many things to consider. Small salaries, and the con- 
dition of school management which makes tenure of posi- 
tion uncertain and not always dependent upon charac- 
ter of service, have turned a large and ever increasing 
number toward the new and varied openings for men of 
force and ability. These conditions inevitably tend toward 
lowering the percentage of excellence among the lessening 
number of men teachers. 

So long as engineering schools cannot supply the demands 
made upon them, so long as the business world is eager 
to offer bright, educated young men a price far above any- 
thing school boards have ever considered market value for 
such material, so long will there be a dearth in the teaching 
ranks of such men as are absolutely necessary for the highest 
success of the schools. 

How potent these influences have been, let the few schools 
whose administrations are willing and able to pay worthy 
salaries testify. In this stampede away from teaching, they 



WHY DOES ONE TEACH? 9 

find it difficult to fill satisfactorily even the few positions 
which they have to offer. 

The pendulum is bound eventually to swing the other 
way. This army of fine young men now rushing madly into 
business will find positions overcrowded, and some will turn 
from the shattered bubbles marked with dollar signs to the 
real issues of life. 

Toward the same end, school boards are waking to the 
fact that their cities cannot afford to have the teaching 
turned over almost entirely to women, with just a scatter- 
ing of men, too few of whom carry into the school-room 
that wide view of life which every teacher should possess. 
They are learning that they must make it worth the while 
of the finest type of young men to enter upon teaching 
as a life profession. 

Now and then there is still a young man stirred by deeper 
motives than the piling up of dollars, or the winning of 
political or other fame, who sees the richness of life, the 
fullness of experience, the breadth of vision possible to the 
man who deals with human souls. Such a man gladly relin- 
quishes the opportunities of so-called world success and 
deliberately selects the quiet days of a worthy teacher. 

Some man who has lived this life in recent years should 
write out the story of his experiences, should present in 
its true light the fullness of such a career. Thomas Arnold 
does not stand alone as the one teacher who has proved the 
greatness of the profession. 

For women the question is markedly different. Not many 
years ago, if it became necessary for a woman 
to earn her own living, teaching was about the 7o^r^ w'omen 
only genteel way in which it could be done. 
Today this is all changed. Every profession is practically 



10 THE TEACHER 

open to her if she can demonstrate her fitness for the occu- 
pation. She is not yet always allowed to compete on equal 
footing with men, and she is rarely paid an equal amount 
for the same labor, but these conditions are inevitable upon 
the newness of things, and these the natural law of evolu- 
tion and the better equipment of women will remedy. 

Thanks to this change in conditions, a woman need no 
longer teach to live, for other ways are open to her, but, 
for the chosen few, there still remains the privilege of 
living to teach. 

It should be an axiom that no one ought to remain a day 
in the school-room unless possessed by an absorbing interest 
in teaching and in life with young people. That 
Teachfng'" ^^^^ ^^^^ imply any mawkish sentimentality, 
but a vigorous, wholesome, natural interest, — 
the same kind of interest that a business man takes in his 
work, an artist in his own creations, a good housekeeper 
in the perfection of domestic appointments, with always the 
deeper absorption that close human relationships inspire. 

To the individual who really loves his work, it goes with- 
out saying that this interest inheres. It is not necessary 
always to be advertising your devotion to the high call- 
ing nor does it demand an unwillingness on your part to 
be interested in other things. It is no disgrace to be glad 
of vacations or to welcome Friday nights, a time blessed 
even to the faithful. 

Occasionally, though, there is a teacher who takes a 
different attitude, whose devotion amounts to an obsession. 
One Friday night a group of teachers had gathered in the 
cloak-room preparatory to the home going. They were 
wholesomely glad of the release, and plans for spending 
the free time were under discussion, when another teacher 
entering the room exclaimed, "How I dread Friday nights ! 



WHY DOES ONE TEACH? 11 

Saturdays and Sundays do break in upon the school 
work so." 

A chorus of opposition, led by the strongest and best 
.teacher in the school, greeted her, and they were right in 
their disapproval. 

These various breaks are what make it possible for anyone 
to continue long in the business. The fact that at intervals 
the work or a portion of it comes to a full stop and can 
be entirely put aside for a time, gives the needed relief 
from the otherwise too intense nervous strain. A heavy load 
can be carried up a long, steep hill if the burden may occa- 
sionally be lifted from the shoulder and a breathing time 
allowed the laborer. For this reason a teacher should put 
aside school work completely and, at intervals, seek a dif- 
ferent atmosphere, different people, and different experi- 
ences. If she does this, she will return to the school with 
renewed interest and enthusiasm. 

Be interested in your work, — one must be to succeed, — 
but let that interest be normal and sane, not hysterical, sen- 
timental, or absorbing to the exclusion of everything else. 

Those outside the pale are apt to look upon a position 
within it as a sinecure. The hours are short, usually from 
half -past eight or nine in the morning to half- 
past three in the afternoon, with an hour or J^f^^Pay 
an hour and a half at noon. Saturdays and 
Sundays are free da^^s. One or two weeks' vacation 
comes at Christmas, another week in the spring, with nine 
or more long ones all together in the summer, not to men- 
tion various holidays furnished by the government, and 
other special dispensations. 

The compensation seems good in comparison with other 
salaried positions for women, especially when the short 
year and the short hours are considered. The pay is prac- 



12 THE TEACHER 

tically certain, for the occasions are exceptional when the 
checks of a school board are not honored. 

Salaries are sufficient to allow teachers to be fairly well 
dressed, to live comfortably, and, with economy, to save a 
little money for summer travel. Wide reading, and the 
habit of constant alertness, help teachers to get out of 
travel more than the average individual discovers. They 
are, as a class, interested in literary and artistic matters 
and very little escapes their quick, trained vision. 

To a person of scholarly tastes, the life is especially 
attractive, for its tendency is toward intellectual advance- 
ment. The teacher who succeeds must continue 
Ufe"^*^*"^' to be more or less a student. This is true, not 
only for those who teach in high schools but 
for grammar, intermediate, primary, and kindergarten 
grades. The study necessary is not only that which 
enables a teacher to keep pace with certain assigned classes, 
for the teacher who is content with this will soon drop 
behind in the race and then wonder at the cause of failure. 
The mind must be kept alert, — somewhat on a strain as it 
reaches out for new stimulus. 

The intellectual training need not be, really should not 
be, always directly in line with the particular branch taught. 
There is no knowledge, no matter how far it may seem 
removed from any possible connection with school work, 
which may not, at any moment, unexpectedly become of 
use. Did you ever learn a new word that you were not sur- 
prised at your later frequent encounters with it? It 
is not likely that you are meeting it any oftener than before, 
but now you have a speaking acquaintance with it, while 
before you had passed it by unnoticed. In a similar manner, 
all knowledge immediately goes into the tool chest of a 
live workman. 



WHY DOES ONE TEACH? 13 

This need for study, this interest in study, leads teachers 
into many pleasant hours. Books become to them close 
personal friends. The room of a good teacher without 
books is an anomaly; not books behind glass doors, but 
books on the table, in chairs, possibly on the floor, but always 
ready to hand. Sometimes they will be for serious study, 
sometimes a volume of poems, a new novel, a history, 
or an open magazine. The books in the room of a live 
teacher will not be identical from month to month; in 
a growing garden the same flowers do not blossom day after 
day. As the mind grows it keeps fairly good pace with the 
literary world. 

In these days a teacher must have some knowledge of 
art. She will know where the great pictures of the world 
are, and who painted them. Inevitably pic- 
tures will find their way into her school-room cultu*re 
and into the room which she calls home. 
These may not be expensive ones, but her few pictures 
always have a meaning. They will be a reproduction of a 
great painting, an etching by an artist of repute, a photo- 
graph of historic value or possessed of a personal interest, 
a half-tone, or a wood-cut that carries back of it a definite 
thought for the owner, and is worth more in culture value, 
in real companionship, than any number of meaningless 
though costly pictures. 

In a town or a small city a teacher is a definite part of 
the social life and is counted upon to be more or less a 
leader. This is especially true of the club life of the com- 
munity, as well as of other public activities. 
He or she will be an important factor in most loslt'on 
social functions. 

In a large city the situation is quite diff'erent. That 
teacher is doomed to disappointment who expects anything 



14 THE TEACHER 

in the way of general social recognition. There will be 
no end of interesting people to know, friends to be made 
in your own or similar activities ; there are theatres, con- 
certs, libraries, and all such places within reach. Occa- 
sionally you will be invited to dinner with the family of 
one of your pupils, but only occasionally, and then it will 
not be at the time of any social function. This is true, not 
because the social set consider themselves in any way supe- 
rior, but because life turns naturally in circles, and those 
of society and the teaching profession do not intersect; 
rarely are they tangent. 

There is, however, a less rosy view to be taken of the 
profession than the one thus far presented, and it behooves 
everyone to look the conditions fairly in the 
fhe^work ^J^' ^^ know what must be met of discourage- 
ment and discomfort. 

Against the short hours must be set the strain, the inten- 
sity, the wear and tear of those few hours, — such strain as 
only the teacher who has worked well can understand 
at all. 

To keep forty — or whatever the assignment may be — 
wriggling, twisting, restless, impulsive, eager, forceful chil- 
dren occupied to their final gain and advancement ; to keep 
them quiet enough so that the main business of the school 
may go on, and yet leave to them a modicum of individual 
freedom ; to watch the springing of each mind toward 
its own goal and to help it on its way; to deal justly, with- 
out impatience, without irritation, with the forty all together 
and with each one as a separate human being; to be con- 
scious of the physical condition of every one ; to know that 
each little body is growing straight and true, each little 
mind speeding on its way to possible greatness, each little 



WHY DOES ONE TEACH? 15 

soul expanding in a free and inspiring atmosphere, — to 
endure all this strain willingly, even joyously; to keep 
sweet tempered through it all ; to hold one's faith and to be 
glad each morning to meet the task again, offers no small 
test to one's powers. 

Knowing this demand, who would consider five hours of 
such labor for five daj^s in the week a sinecure? 

The man who leisurely shovels sand in the city streets 
under a municipal contractor for eight hours a day is well 
paid in comparison with the amount doled out by the 
same municipality to the men and women who take the 
responsibility of the city's children. Your man in the 
ditch gets good pay for giving his muscles wholesome exer- 
cise; your teacher puts into a day's work, body, mind, 
and soul. Humbly following the greatest of teachers, 
she knows at the close of the day that virtue has gone out 
of her. 

But even then the story is not all told. When the door 
closes upon the last child at night, to the casual observer, 
the day is at an end. But few teachers are able to lock 
their work within the school-room. They may go home 
empty-handed, no papers to look over, no lessons to pre- 
pare, no reports to make out, but the man or woman whose 
labor is with pulsing human life is never entirely away 
from that work. 

Much is said of the greatness of a teacher's labor, of the 
wonderful satisfaction that comes from seeing the young 
people develop and come into their own under 
the wise care of a wise teacher. There is much ^Cm^PifpVis" 
talk of the devotion of these same pupils to 
such a teacher and of the high appreciation given to her 
efforts. 



16 THE TEACHER 

Let anyone who enters upon the teaching profession in 
the hope of these rewards pause before it is too late to 
turn aside, for nothing but disappointment awaits him. 

Two things are as sure as death, and the honest teacher 
must face them with an attitude of grim acceptance of 
the inevitable : the thoughtlessness of youth and its supreme 
selfishness. Expect nothing from your young people in 
the way of thoughtful consideration, — nothing but a selfish 
seeking of their own ends, and you will save yourself much 
bitter disappointment. You will sometimes receive both 
consideration and prodigal generosity, but only occa- 
sionally, — just often enough to renew your courage. 

And all this is as it should be. Youth is and ought to 
be egoistic. With a clearness of vision that grows dim with 
years, it sees the exalted purpose of its own life and, with 
eye upon the shining goal, it starts in a direct line toward 
it, looking neither to right nor left, unconsciously trampling 
upon the keenest feelings of those who are trying to clear 
for it the upward path. If this is selfishness, it is the uncon- 
scious selfishness that forgets everything in the pursuit 
of its own ideal. This ideal may change from day to day, 
may not always be worthy, but it is the expression of the 
forceful earnestness without which the world would stand 
still. 

The teacher who makes of this egoism a personal matter, 
sees in it an intentional slight, will suffer more than one 
bad half hour. The child is much of the time utterly 
unconscious of the teacher. Like other things which 
Providence supplies, the teacher is there ready with help 
when needed, forgotten at other times. 

Neither should any great appreciation be expected 
from parents. This does come occasionally, and when 
it does is very precious. But the rank and file of 



WHY DOES ONE TEACH? 17 

patrons of a school march on in unthinking indifference to 
what the body of earnest, devoted teachers is doing for their 
children. 

. 1 1 ./» 1 Appreciation 

You will be fortunate, indeed, if you always ij-orn 

... n 1 / Parents 

escape carping, unjust criticism from them, for 

parents are selfish in the interest of their children. They 
are ready, at the first suggestion, to assume that some in- 
justice, some slight has been offered their children, while 
others, seemingly less worthy, have received special con- 
sideration. These conclusions they reach from insufficient 
data. The instances are rare when parents come near 
enough either to school or teacher to get any information 
first hand. No matter how honest a child may intend to be, 
may think he is, the reports that he takes home are always 
more or less tinged with unconscious egoism. He sees his 
own side of a question to the exclusion of everything else. 

One must accept the fact that, in comparison with the 
large number of different children that come under the 
influence of each teacher, the percentage of those who ever 
give any expression of appreciation of what has been done 
for them, or even feel appreciation, is pitifully small. 

For two reasons, a teacher rarely comes into much real- 
ization of this lack of appreciation: in the first place, she 
is so unselfish that any thought of reward or 
personal consideration is usually far from her Qrati^'ude' 
mind; in the second place, when occasional 
recognitions of service do come, they are so precious that 
she hugs them tight. Like any other small object held 
close to the eye, they obscure everything else on the horizon, 
and she loses sight of the great army moving on, neglecting 
and forgetting her. 

Almost never do children or young people realize at the 
time the value of the personal interest of their teachers. 



18 THE TEACHER 

Few of us are ever able to judge the present in right pro- 
portions. In later years pleasant echoes do come out of 
the past. Sometimes it is a book sent with the author's 
compliments and a note saying, "This is your book, not 
mine, for you made me what I am." Sometimes it is a gift 
that harks back to school days in remembrance of somf 
special taste of the teacher; sometimes, a card of greeting 
to show that memory still holds a little spot for you. 

Is the teacher's life worth while even though the vast 
army surges by in utter f orgetf ulness ? 

The true teacher knows that it is; even when she is dis- 
regarded and forgotten, she is sure that her work is vital 
and will produce results to the world's better- 
Pay, '* ment. These results are not immediately mani- 
fest but no teacher can measure the extent of 
daily influence. Often the feeling will come that her labor 
is vain, for she must work with hundreds and see them go 
out from the school-room in apparent forgetfulness of her 
and of all she has tried to do for them. 

But the work of a good teacher is permanent, and some 
time, somewhere, in the world it will bear fruit, although 
she may never know it. After all, it is the work that 
counts and not the worker. 

The demands made upon a worthy teacher are tremendous. 
When they are held up one by one and considered calmly, 
they are appalling. Yet there is some subtle charm in the 
occupation that keeps joyously and enthusiastically at the 
work those born to the calling. 

The mere living with young people day after day is a 
great privilege. He who does this cannot grow morbid; 
interest in life cannot wane when their quick wit, their 
intense enthusiasm, their ready appreciation of humorous 
situations lighten the hours. Just as in a well constructed 



WHY DOES ONE TEACH? 19 

drama, the humorous situations are introduced to reheve 
the tension, so a teacher's days are lightened by the good 
spirits, the good fellowship of the young people. 

The days are filled with mingled work, play, studj'', laugh- 
ter, tears, joys, sorrows, victories, disappointments, heart- 
aches, and happiness. One must be patient with the dull, 
appreciative of honest endeavor, sensitive to the needs of 
every individual, gentle, tender, sympathetic, and yet, when 
necessary, firm as the rock-ribbed hills. 

Technically, the demands upon one adopting the profes- 
sion are not great. But keeping school is one thing ; teach- 
ing school, another. It is possible to heep school and not 
lose your position. To hear classes and earn a living is a 
simple matter, but that is not entering upon the pro- 
fession of teaching. ' In fact, the same thing is true here 
as in every other line of work ; if one is willing to be a time- 
server, he can get along, for the public is long-suffering, 
especially so in its endurance of poor teaching. 

There is constant discussion going on as to the difficulty 
of obtaining positions, but there is also a constant search 
for competent persons for all kinds of positions. The 
market is overstocked with people who will "just do," but 
the men and women who fill positions absolutely full are few 
and far between. Become one of these and you will never 
have to make application to school boards or register in 
teachers' agencies. Good positions will seek you. 



CHAPTER II 
THE FIRST DAY 

Whether a teacher stands for the first time before any 
school, or whetlier it is the first day in a new position, the 
situation is certainly a most critical one. The conditions 
are new, the children are strangers, and the teacher all 
untried in this different relation. 

No audience is more critical than a new school on the 

first day ; no eyes ever look w ith keener gaze than the forty 

. or more pairs then focused upon the teacher. 

Out a If there is a weak spot in the armor, brown or 

Teacher -n i • -o i 

blue or gray eyes will search it out; if the 

teacher reveals but one quiver of hesitation, some one in 
the battalion w ill discover it and the victory that might have 
been won at first is either lost forever or delayed for settle- 
ment after many skirmishes. 

The school has the advantage of the new teacher, for it 
is on familiar ground; it is a unit and while it may be in 
the attitude of submitting willingly to the one who shows 
herself master of the situation, the new teacher must prove 
her claim to that mastery. 

It would be hard to say why this is so. The situation 
is an unconscious one on the part both of the school as a 
whole and the individuals composing it, but the fact remains 
that no matter how well disciplined the class may be, there 
will be some members of it who will put the new teacher to 
the test. 

The outside armor which should offer invulnerable resist- 

20 



THE FIRST DAY 21 

ance is personal appearance. Never can this be disregarded 
or treated lightly. Like many other things in life, if right, 
it sinks immediately into f orgetf ulness ; if 
wrong, there is no estimating the extent of its Appfearance 
harmful influence. 

If every detail of a teacher's dress and person is cor- 
rect, then she can at once forget it all and give her attention 
to the more important matters ; if wrong, there is the con- 
stant, nagging irritation which she cannot escape, and 
ought not to escape, and which is bound to weaken her power 
in the school-room. So important is the matter that it 
demands discussion in detail. 

There is a large class of teachers who have learned the 
power that lies in being well groomed, well put up, and, 
fortunately, this class is constantly increasing. There still 
remains, however, altogether too large a number who seem 
to have thrown themselves together almost any way, catch- 
ing up whatever is within reach in the shape of clothes and 
tossing them on. 

The care of the hair is also of great importance. It 
should be dressed consistently for the day's work. It is 
always good sense to keep near enough to the prevailing 
style not to appear eccentric, but the school-room is not the 
place to display the latest effects in elaborate use of puffs, 
braids, pompadours, and curls. The hair should be dressed 
compactly to endure for the day and as stylishly as may 
suit the individual without being extreme. Use such combs 
as are necessary to keep the hair in place, but never turn 
the head into a cushion for holding unnecessary celluloid 
combs, pins, or cheap, useless ornaments. Senseless so-called 
decorations are out of place in a business toilet. 

The number of black-rimmed, ragged, unkempt index 
finger-nails that point the way of learning on reader, arith- 



22 THE TEACHER 

metic, and geography makes it imperative to say a word 
about the care of the nails. It takes time to keep the nails 
in proper condition, but that time must be found even if it 
comes off the extra fort}^ morning winks. 

One is almost ashamed to mention the care of the teeth, 
but observation proves that it is necessary. A teacher has 
to talk with the eyes of the children upon her. If any 
defect is visible, their keen vision will discover it and fasten 
their gaze and their memory upon it. 

When it comes to clothes, a volume might be written on 
what to wear and what not to wear. In proof of this, look 
critically at the mass of women in attendance 
Clothes at any state association. Some strange appari- 

tions will cross the vision of such an observer. 

The greatest danger lies in the attempt to imitate in 
cheap material, prevailing styles that, when worked out by 
an artist in expensive material, are a success. The poor 
imitation is always a dismal failure. 

Clothes do not have to be expensive to be appropriate 
or in good taste, but they must be fitted to the occasion 
and consistent with the position of the wearer. The woman 
who walks to her work or rides in crowded street cars 
could never be considered well dressed in the kind of clothes 
that are entirely appropriate for the woman who has her 
own automobile. 

A toilet must be in keeping with itself, composed of gar- 
ments that belong together. In defiance of this principle, 
a young woman appeared at a state meeting wearing with 
a blue skirt a green waist trimmed with soiled white lace. 
Her hat was very cheap black velvet, much bef eathered and 
jetted. To this was added a set of brown furs, a cheap 
imitation of something expensive, while over her arm she 



THE FIRST DAY 23 

carried a gray coat, badly soiled, which evidently had not 
been pressed after frequent drenchings. 

At the same meeting was a very large black hat with 
dingy white rim-lining. Piled on top were flowers, a big 
bow of red ribbon, bunches of cherries, and a large gilt 
buckle, badly tarnished. The combination might have been 
possible in the hands of a French milliner in return for 
the large sum that she would have charged, but, even 
then, it would have been so startling as to be appropriate 
only for occasional wear by the woman possessed of many 
hats and who sought unusual effects. It was utterly 
outside the power of any milliner whom a school teacher 
could afford to patronize. 

These may sound like extreme cases, but they are two of 
many equally bad that graced the same occasion. Moreover, 
the description is not given from memory, but from notes 
actually taken with the original of the pictures in sight. 

In contrast to these, at the same meeting, there walked 
up the aisle a young woman clad in a well-fitted tailored 
suit of rough brown cloth. She wore a plain brown hat in 
good style and with the simplest of trimming, and a set 
of marten furs that were what they pretended to be. The 
entire costume was simple in the extreme, but beyond criti- 
cism in every detail. Its very simplicity and the enduring 
quality of the material would leave the costume looking 
about as well when it was laid aside in the spring as it 
did in the middle of the winter, while the others described 
were tumbled and shabby with ver>^ little wear. 

As a teacher cannot afford an extensive wardrobe, her 
few clothes should be selected with reference to the kind 
of wear to which they must be subjected. 

The clothes that are w^orn in the school-room should be 
bought for that purpose. Dresses that are past wear for 



U THE TEACHER 

other occasions are too often considered good enough to 
work in. No mistake in the toilet could be worse. It were 
far better to appear at an afternoon tea in a fresh shirt- 
waist and a well pressed skirt than to wear in the school- 
room a dilapidated gown that, in its freshness, was appro- 
priate for the former function. School clothes should be 
compact and of such material as will stand the wear with- 
out becoming mussed and shabby. They should be as good 
style of their kind as those bought for other purposes. 

It is inevitable that a teacher must wear about the same 
clothes day after day, but she will find it profitable at times 
to appear in something quite different from her every- 
day gown. Once in a while she should "dress up" both for 
her sake and for the children's. The dressing up should not 
consist in putting on a piece of dejected finery or an elabo- 
rate dress that has seen better days. In summer, a pretty 
muslin gown will be a relief from the sterner tailored cos- 
tume; in winter, an occasional appearance in her best suit 
will have its effect. 

Think of the warm summer day when that youn^, 
attractive teacher, your special admiration, returned in the 
afternoon wearing a rose-sprinkled muslin dress which made 
her doubly beautiful. No wish but to do her bidding found 
lodgment in the breast of any child that afternoon. 

There are teachers possessed of so little taste as to 
wear needless jewelry. If a woman in the school-room wears 
the right costumes, those costumes will auto- 
Jeweiry matically settle the jewelry question, for they 

permit nothing in the shape of needless orna- 
ments. Everything must have a use and then it may be as 
fine as need be. 

Having selected the right clothes, it becomes the next 
duty to keep them in perfect order. The demands for 



THE FIRST DAY 25 

perfection in every detail grow more imperative each day. 

No single spot should be visible upon waist or skirt ; collars 

must be always fresh, there must be no hiatus 

at the belt line glaringly spanned by glittering cfoUies^ 

safety-pin which belt awry fails to cover. 

Hooks and eyes must be invisible but efficient, and living in 

harmony, buttons and button-holes well matched and on 

good terms. Fringe is not an accepted ornament for the 

bottom of a skirt. A woman may go hungry if need be, 

but she must save money enough to pay for all the pressing 

and cleaning necessary to keep the fresh look upon a worn 

suit. 

This may sound like an elaborate and needless discussion 

of a trivial subject. If it seems so, hark back to your 

owh school days and recall the tumbled, untidy look of 

some particular teacher, and remember the effect upon your 

own youthful mind. 

We are inclined to think the question of clothes a purely 

feminine one, but masculine attire demands equally careful 

attention. 

To be sure, the consideration in this case is somewhat 

different, the points less obvious to the careless, but the 

subject is equally important. Here it becomes 

a question of the cut of clothes and their tex- ?u "^.?/"'"9 
-^ ^ the Man 

ture, as well as attention to smallest detail. The 
effect of a well tailored suit can be spoiled by a collar too 
loose, too high, or too low, and held together by a soiled, 
cheap necktie all wrong in color. 

Immaculate linen, perfectly brushed clothes, free from 
spots, and clean pohshed shoes, cannot be considered lux- 
uries, but necessities. Clothes must show no persistent 
wrinkles, no weather-roughened texture, but must be fre- 
quently pressed to an appearance of newness. 



26 THE TExYCHER 

No matter how inexpensive a man's clothes, he must, in 
these days, have the unmistakable appearance of being well 
groomed. If possible, the demands upon a man in this 
direction are even greater than upon a woman. 

When the external armor is right, it can be immediately 
forgotten. But there are other things of equally great 
importance. One of these was brought strik- 
Carr^iage ii^g^J to the attention of a certain faculty. 

There was placed in charge of this school a 
woman of unusually strong personality. Her carriage and 
manner were beyond reproach and both entirely devoid of 
affectation. For the first time the teaching force realized 
the difference between propelling the body forward for the 
purpose of getting from place to place and really walk- 
ing. This woman walked. Since that day she has been 
the standard by which, in this particular, all others have 
been measured, and very few^ have approached it. 

The American woman of today who walks well is the 
exception. It is impossible to give directions or to offer 
specific criticism. Each one must observe for herself, keep 
muscles well and evenly trained, and avoid seeming con- 
sciousness in all things. All that anyone but yourself can 
do is to emphasize the importance of w^alking well; each 
individual must study the matter and strive to correct faults 
in carriage. 

The importance of the voice cannot be overestimated. The 
Enghsh have much to say of the strident, nasal tones of the 
Americans. This criticism is all too just, espe- 
voice cially of the woman. Any teacher of success- 

ful experience knows the power that lies in well 
modulated tones. The low voice is the voice of influence. 
Many a command or direction, in itself wise, just, and 
necessary, has failed of obedience because of the quality of 



THE FIRST DAY 27 

voice in which it was dehvered. The teacher who has 
to depend upon shouting makes clear her confession of 
weakness. 

The voice should be trained to carrying power without 
the necessity of loud speaking. By placing it rightly in the 
throat, the pupils on the back seat can be reached with per- 
fect ease in a low conversational tone. Practice with watch- 
ful ear will accomplish this. 

Avoid a droning monotone. Many a class has been 
lulled into inanition by the unvarying quality of a teacher's 
voice. 

The use of a telephone will furnish a good test of voice 
quality. Whoever can talk through the instrument in a 
low, unstrained, natural tone usually has the desirable pitch 
and power. Whoever finds herself inclined to shout and to 
raise the voice to unnatural key, has need to correct many 
faults in manner of speaking. 

Distinct enunciation must also be cultivated. The pur- 
pose of speech is to convey your thought to your hearers ; 
if articulation is indistinct, if words are mumbled, and not 
allowed to pass beyond half-closed teeth, then the pur- 
poses of speech are defeated. In striving for clear enun- 
ciation the precise, school teacher, painstaking picking out 
of every sound should be avoided. 

Rightl}^ equipped, the new teacher can immediately for- 
get herself and give her attention to the pupils before her. 
By her correct appearance and manner, she has doubtless 
already w^on favorable consideration, and the Accept 
boys and girls are in a mood to accept her fondVtions 
pleasantly. ^^ ^'^'^^ 

Possibly most of the class have been together the year 
before. They are familiar with the organization of the 
school and with its routine. If the room is a part of a 



28 THE TEACHER 

large school, there exists a definite system under which the 
children are accustomed to work. If this is true, the 
routine can be trusted to move on without much interference 
from the teacher. She may hke it or she may not, but for 
the first week, at least, it is the part of wisdom to watch the 
machinery work, observing carefully but keeping hands off. 

The inexperienced teacher has more to learn of organiza- 
tion than she has to offer. In this particular it behooves 
her to be very humble until she fully grasps the situation 
and accumulates a little practical knowledge. Her head may 
be filled with any amount of psychology, pedagogy, and 
book wisdom on child study, but there is a strange per- 
versity in the human race which catches many a cog in 
these smooth running theoretical machines. All this 
knowledge will some time be very useful, an excellent foun- 
dation upon which to build efficient dealings with young 
people, but it cannot be brought into the school-room and 
be made to work according to the book the first day. 

The first morning the children are all strangers, their 
names all unknown. By night, many of them should be 
familiar as individuals and the teacher able 
Names to call more than one by name. It is far more 

effective to call John or Maud or Charles or 
Jennie than vaguely to designate the individual by locality 
or some other primitive method. 

A room chart with the full name of every pupil in proper 
place should be about the first thing made ready. One 
by one boy or girl will attract attention and the oppor- 
tunity should not be allowed to pass without fixing the name. 
At first it will be easy to remember these when the pupil 
is in his own seat, but it will take some effort to connect 
name and pupil out of that position. But a conscious effort 
should be put forth in this direction and the teacher should 



THE FIRST DAY 29 

train herself to call everyone by name as soon as possible. 
There is an element of power in being able to do this easily. 

In the grades, the custom is universal of calling children 
by their first names. In high schools that is sometimes 
done. In certain schools the young people are addressed 
as Mr. and Miss, while in others the boys are called by 
their surnames only. 

There is something to be said for each method according 
to the school. To a large number, liowever, it seems an 
affectation to address the ninth year boy in knickerbockers 
as "jNIr." It certainly strikes him so at first. Probably the 
better plan is to use first names. In this, as in every- 
thing else, common sense should be exercised. It some- 
times happens that there will be in a high school a young 
man or woman of greater maturity than the average. If 
that person were met outside, the Mr. or Miss would 
naturally be used. There is every reason for doing the 
same thing in school. 

The first day is necessarily one of strain and excitement. 
At night its events should be passed in critical review and 
this criticism should be entirely of one's self. 
It is well early to form the habit of judg- criticism 
ing results. At the close of the first day 
every teacher should have at least an opinion as to how 
matters have gone, be able to isolate mistakes, and to seek 
out a way to remedy them. That teacher who comes to 
the end of the first day and fails to see some things that 
she has done wrong probably has done very few things 
as they should be done. If you know you have made mis- 
takes, then there is hope ; if you see things that make you 
wish it were morning so you could make them go better 
another day, you will probably eventually make a success. 

Again, that individual who comes to the close of the first 



30 THE TEACHER 

day and feels that the work is very easy, that the position 
is going to make very few demands, is, without doubt, hope- 
lessly blind, has not in the smallest degree grasped the 
situation. 

A man once was appointed principal of a large high 
school. The one who had held the place for years before 
him had broken down under the strain of the heavy work, 
the demand made upon his personal interest, and the respon- 
sibilities that were overwhelming. The new principal 
remarked, early in his career, that he could not under- 
stand why anyone could consider the position hard. He 
did the work so easily that he really felt scruples about 
accepting the salary for what could be done with so little 
exertion. His eyes were sealed against the true appre- 
ciation of what the position offered in the way of oppor- 
tunity and duty. 

Besides being critical of yourself, it is helpful to put 
yourself in the attitude of receiving or even courting criti- 
cism and suggestions from someone of experi- 
from^ oThers ^^^^- There is bound to be some teacher who 
knows the school and its needs and who, if 
encouraged to do so, may save the inexperienced many sad 
catastrophes by a few words of warning. No one reaches 
such perfection that he may not find something to learn, 
and the young teacher possesses more ignorance than she 
dreams of, even at the close of the first trying day. 

These teachers of experience can give advice, can point 
out some of the local pitfalls, can give valuable assistance 
In clearing the mind of the beginner by talking things over; 
but after all is said and done, the individual must work 
out his own salvation. 

No young woman should allow herself to expect much 
assistance from the principal. From the first she must show 



THE FIRST DAY 31 

what kind of stuff slie is made of. Advice she may ask, 
information about routine she may obtain, but the teacher 
who, even on the first day or the first week, 
expects to lean upon the strength of a superior '"depen- 
is not worth the saving to the teaching force. 
A principal may, for a time, cover the weakness of a subor- 
dinate, may stand between her and the consequences of her 
mistakes, may assist her over the troubles arising from inex- 
perience, but these assistances should be very few. If they 
become numerous and do not diminish as the days go on, 
then the conclusion is inevitable that the young woman has 
missed her callinxr. 

One of the best principals the country has ever known 
was noted for the strong corps of teachers that he always 
had in his school. When asked for an explanation he 
answered: "I never try to prop up a weak teacher. Those 
that need propping are not the kind that we want in the 
schools. If it has to be done at first to any great extent, 
they are bound to fail eventually, and while thev are getting 
ready to fail the school has suffered from inferior teaching. 
The sooner they drop out the better." 

"But what about the teacher?" he was asked. 

"The schools do not exist for the purpose of furnishing 
employment to young women, but for the training of our 
children. That fact should never be lost sight of, and sym- 
pathy for the individual teacher must not blind principal 
or board to the best interests of the schools.^' 

Two things are important in the beginner: first, close 
watchfulness for her own mistakes; second, a willingness 
to receive criticism and advice from those wiser than herself. 

Above all, remember that if the first day did not go 
entirely as you hoped, there is a tomorrow in which to 
improve upon today. 



CHAPTER III 
LIFE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL 

The influence of the life lived by any teacher outside of 
the school-room counts for as much as, if not more, than 
what she does during the hours which she spends in actual 
teaching. 

To a greater or less degree, her teaching activities are 
somewhat definitely prescribed; what she does, or is, in 
her independent hours is largely a matter of choice, deter- 
mined by the natural promptings of her own personality. 
This reflects upon her as an individual and counts for more 
than is often appreciated toward the success or failure of 
the teacher. 

The man or woman who wins highest honors in any direc- 
tion is the one of wide vision. There is a difl^erence between 
wideness and superficiality. The extended vision 
Na'rrowness ^^^^ ^°* preclude deep and exhaustive work in 
one or more directions. On the other hand, in 
these days of specialization there is great danger of run- 
ning into narrowness, of getting so deep into a particular 
rut that it is impossible to see over the edges. Sometimes 
the delver forgets that there is anything outside the con- 
tracted mole-like channel in which he is burrowing. 

With a full classical training at one of our leading 
colleges, and with a doctor's degree from a German uni- 
versity, a certain young professor was called to a position 
at his Alma Mater. He early announced with pride that 
he planned to spend the next three years in exclusive study 

32 



LIFE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL 33 

of the ne clause. Such a choice at the close of his senior 
year in a secondary school would have been madness. Such 
exclusive specialization, even in a college professor, ought 
to presuppose wide general information and should come 
only after such a wide foundation has been laid. 

There is scarcely a calling which tends so to narrowness 
as does the teaching profession. In spite of a good educa- 
tion, of opportunities to travel, of more or less leisure, the 
earnest teacher is too often inclined to forget everything 
else and bury herself in her school work. It claims her first 
waking thought ; she tells at the breakfast table what hap- 
pened yesterday ; she works legitimately in the school-room 
all the morning. Usually she has her luncheon with other 
teachers, and the conversation is about Johnny or what 
was said in the class. The afternoon is a repetition of the 
morning from which the teacher carries home with her the 
nagging thought of something that has gone wrong. 
School thrusts itself into the dinner conversation. Papers 
to correct, lessons to look over for the morrow, fill up the 
dull evening which sends weary head to pillow, to thresh 
much of it all over again in dreams. Such an individual 
is in poor condition the next day to wrestle with the force- 
ful band of Young America arrayed against her. 

This is not an exaggerated picture of an individual case, 
but too true a representation of a large number of the 
teaching body. Extreme cases exist, of course, of which 
here is a sample. A man once asked a teacher if she had 
read a certain book, mentioning one of excellent merit 
which was then attracting wide attention. 

"No," she replied, "I haven't had time for twenty years 
to read anything but primers and first readers, and the 
nature books which I have to teach." 

If this woman were a good teacher in spite of this nar- 



34 THE TEACHER 

row, contracted, pitiful condition, what a great teacher she 
might have been if she could have but climbed the hill-side 
ever so little a way ! 

She was proud of her devotion to her work, not know- 
ing that her attitude showed mental obhquity if not disease. 
She had lost all power of control. She was like the person 
holding the electrodes of a battery with a current thrilling 
through them so strong as to deprive her of all ability to 
let go. 

In a certain city in one of the states of the middle west, 
the principal of the high school, a most successful school- 
man, once made this remark: 

"If I had to choose between the teacher who went home 
every night with a pile of papers to look over, or who spent 
the entire evening in preparing the next day's work, and 
the one who left it all behind her, had a good time, forget- 
ting school completely, I would take the latter." 

The first one is likely to come to school dull and tired; 
the other brings to class the glow of enthusiasm and a fresh- 
ened vitality that outweighs more technical preparation. 
She may not have clearly in mind, as the other teacher 
does, all the fine points of the lesson, but the red blood 
flowing swiftly in her veins carries the young people on 
to do for themselves. 

Of course there is a happy medium. The wise teacher 
finds it. 

If the clothes a woman wears in school are important, 
those she wears outside of working hours are equally so, 
especially to herself. By half -past three, the 
Evening wear and tear of the day has had its effect. 

Even if she looks as fresh as in the morning, 
she feels untidy, dilapidated, and weary. Inclination may 
tend to a superficial tidying, because more care seems at the 



LIFE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL 35 

time too great an exertion. Be as wary of yielding to this 
feeling as the traveler through ice and snow and cold is to 
the almost overwhelming sense of drowsiness that attacks 
him. He knows that sinking into sleep is death. Settling 
down for the evening in school clothes means for the teacher 
a dropping into deadly dullness which soon becomes chronic. 
The temptation just to wash the face, brush the skirt, give 
the hair some attention, and go to dinner without further 
trouble is sometimes almost overpowering. But the woman 
who expects to make other people go her way must first 
learn to master herself. 

A quick bath, preferably warm at this time of the 
day, should be the first requisite toward resting. Nerves 
are likely not to be fully in accord, and the warm water 
by equalizing circulation tends to restore equilibrium. 
Every garment, even to the shoes, that has done duty in 
the school-room should be "put away to rest." Clothes 
need that cure as much as the individual. Fresh, crisp 
clothing helps toward a fresh, crisp mind. What the gown 
shall be must depend somewhat upon the plans for the 
evening, but even if the hours are to be spent alone in 
one's room, a fresh, light muslin or a simple dinner dress 
will add to the self-respect of the wearer and to the enjoy- 
ment of quiet hours with a book or pen or fancy work. 

The successful teacher must be something besides a 
teacher. Teaching may be her vocation, but she should, 
for her own satisfaction and for her hii^hest 

1 11- • 1 • 1 Value 

success, have an absorbni^^ avocation besides, of an 

'^ Avocation 

Rest no longer is considered synonymous with 
idleness. Rest is change, the bringing into activity of a 
different set of muscles, using the mind in an entirely 
different direction. 

Many great men have had some favorite pursuit aside 



36 THE TEACHER 

from their chosen profession. It not infrequently happens, 
too, that this same worker has made his own lasting fame 
through his avocation. 

Seymour Haden was primarily a surgeon, but he made 
a world-wide reputation as an etcher. He began his study 
of the art as a recreation and relief from the strain of his 
professional labors. All that he did with etching made 
him a better surgeon, for he went back to the operating 
table with nerves steadied by complete rest and change in 
an absorbing interest. 

S. Weir Mitchell was primarily a nerve specialist. It 
would seem that a man of such authority in one line, whose 
services were so in demand, would have no leisure for any- 
thing else. But somehow he found time to write "Hugh 
Wynne," "The Adventures of Fran9ois," "Characteristics," 
and other books. 

Maurice Hewlitt could never have given us John Sen- 
house with his glorious garden which was all England, if he 
had not thrown aside pen and book to dig with his own 
hands and learn the nature of the mariposa lily that he 
might plant an obscure hillside with them. There are heads 
of great manufacturing establishments earning their mil- 
lions who can tell you more about orchids than the man who 
makes a business of raising them, and who can show you a 
greater and rarer collection than can be found in any green- 
house that furnishes the market. 

There are matinee idols who rush from the glare of the 
foot-lights to work upon some model for an electrical device, 
an aeroplane, oi something else that makes them forget the 
admiring audience and the confusion behind the scenes. 
More than one man has turned from the strain of Wall 
Street and the stock exchange to write the stories which we 
read with delight in the magazines. Longfellow and Lowell 



LIFE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL 37 

were primarily college professors; Hawthorne earned his 
living in the customs house and in diplomatic service; even 
kings and queens have sought relaxation in science and in 
literature. 

It is almost universally true that those who have done 
the world's best work have had some secondary interest 
to turn to for change and recreation. 

The great teacher, the good teacher, should not be an 
exception. Let that interest be drawing or painting, music, 
mechanics, designing, writing or nature study, but let it be 
something. The individual without interest is bound to be 
uninteresting, and no one in the teaching business, who 
entertains hope of success, can afford to be that for one 
instant. 

The natural conditions of a teacher's life too often have 

little to offer her in the way of recreation or diversion from 

the outside. This, of course, varies in different 

. . « 1 Acquain- 

places. In a small town, opportunities of know- tance with 
T . Mil Parents 

mg its people come easily, and the teacher who 

desires to save some time for her own pursuits occasionally 

has to put up the barriers. >iTo know in a personal way, the 

families to which your children belong, to have some notion 

of the manner in which the children live, is of inestimable 

value in your relations with them in the school-room. The 

side hght thus gained upon personal peculiarities and the 

reason for them, and upon traits of character, habits, and 

attitude of mind, frequently illuminates a situation through 

which there was before no way but blind groping. 

In small towns there is more or less club life in which 

the teacher is expected to take part. Sometimes this may 

have something valuable to offer her, but usually she will 

be looked up to and expected to become a leader. When 

this is true, she should, if possible, accept the responsibility 



38 THE TEACHER 

and be grateful for the opportunity, counting it all in a 
day's work. 

In a city this situation will not arise. If she knows 
anything about the home life of her pupils it will be 
through such interest in them as to make her go deliberately 
and definitely after information. 

The children come from all grades of society, meeting 
each other and you only in the school-room. To the 
families of most of these pupils you are only a name, some- 
times not even that, but just "teacher." When one stops 
to consider it, fathers and mothers in a great city are 
astonishingly unacquainted with school conditions. It 
might be expected that even the most unthinking parent 
would have some curiosity, at least, to know what sort of 
person has charge of his children during a large part of 
their working hours, who conducts their intellectual train- 
ing, and very largely determines the trend of their moral 
and spiritual development. 

But that is not the case. Whether the condition is one 
of indifference on the part of parents or whether they 
have that complete confidence in the school system and 
its employees which the man manifested in his minister 
when he went calmly to sleep during the sermon, some 
wiser head must determine. 

No matter what the cause, the teacher has a plain duty 
to embrace every opportunity of extending her acquaintance 
with the people for whom she is working. This means fol- 
lowing up all opportunities of meeting and talking w^ith 
these people upon the natural ground where there is a 
common interest — the good of the child. There are various 
dignified ways of doing this which fall legitimately under a 
topic to be discussed later. 
, Jhe successful teacher can never cease to be a student. 



,.--TnQ 



LIFE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL 39 

Sometimes her work is such, especially if it falls in a high 
school, that she is compelled for a time to study hard to 
keep up with the class work. Even a college 
education gives only one point of view, and stud^erft ^ 
that of the teacher is entirely different. Many 
a student graduated with high honors, rightly earned, too, 
has been appalled, when he stood before a class as its in- 
structor, at the inaccuracy, the vagueness of his knowledge 
in the very subject in which he as a student excelled. It 
is one thing to make a good recitation from day to day ; 
quite a different thing to possess such a grasp of the sub- 
ject, such a general view of it, as to teach it effectively. 

In early teaching years, this accurate preparation, this 
filling up the holes in one's own education, will absorb about 
all the time and strength that should be given to formal 
study. But sooner or later this preliminary work is done. 
At this stage, selection should be made of some subject of 
interest and the serious study of it should be entered upon. 
Let it be French, German, Spanish, science, mathematics, 
or literature, but let it be something, and let it be pursued 
regularly. 

It is not necessary to devote any great length of time* 
to this study ; the important thing is that it be done sys- 
tematically. This may be given fifteen minutes or half an 
hour every day, every other day, or twice a week. Occa- 
sionally the few minutes will be absorbed by other obliga- 
tions, but one must never let go entirely. The amount 
that can be accomplished in a given line with no more than 
an average of fifteen minutes a day given to it, will sur- 
prise the individual who has been in the habit of wasting 
many times these fifteen minutes. 

Several of the leading educators of the country, men 
and women who hold responsible positions both in colleges 



40 THE TEACHER 

and in public schools, had little opportunity for systematic 
study in their early years, but have secured broad educa- 
tion through self-directed study and the turning of odd 
moments to good account. The process is slow, laborious, 
and often discouraging, but it will produce results. 

College degrees are today easily within the reach of 
those who earnestly desire them, and the tendency is moving 
rapidly toward demanding such degrees from teachers. 
Numberless high schools now refuse to employ anyone not 
thus equipped, and here and there a like qualification is 
insisted upon in the lower grades. This ought to start a 
teacher out far ahead of the old-time instructor who had to 
begin work on very slender education. In the long run 
the former ought to go much farther and do much better 
work for the school than the latter. This end, however, 
will be completely defeated in the case of the student who 
feels that his education is completed with the winning of a 
college diploma. By that time, he has just begun to 
study ; a year's teaching will show him purposes and ends 
of study which he had never dreamed of before. The road 
will open before him and he will be amazed at the length 
of it. 

Teachers are readers naturally, but frequently only 
desultory ones, picking up a magazine here, a novel there, 
making once in a while an effort at more serious 
Recreation^*' undertakings. A certain amount of this kind 
of light reading is not onh^ allowable but even 
desirable. A good novel throws one into the society of 
people sometimes far more interesting than those that come 
naturally into the day. A good short story is a rest. To 
sit down on a solitary evening with a good novel and not to 
leave the comfortable chair until the last leaf is turned, is 
a dissipation worthy of occasional indulgence, for it brings 



LIFE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL 41 

rest and change akin to a journey abroad. The utter for- 
getting of one's own individuahty is often bhssfuh Such 
indulgence is not, however, to be commended as a habit. 

Having two or three books on hand at the same time has 
its advantage. If one does not fit the mood, another may, 
and the reading pleasure is thus conserved. 

The reading should be advancing definitely and with 
purpose along some line. This more serious reading, like 
systematic study, need not take much time each p^^^.^g 
day, but it should have its place. After this, ^'l^^^^l^ 
the reading mood may be indulged with greater 
latitude. Some reading that seems fri^ olous may later bear 
fruit. 

A very successful teacher of English History tells a story 
of how she first became interested in the subject. Like many 
other young people, she had the desire to take up some 
improving course of reading. Several historical works were 
suggested to her, but finding them all dull and unattractive, 
she abandoned her study of the subject. History was her 
abomination. 

About that time a small circulating library was started 
in the little town where she lived. She was assistant to the 
librarian, and as the duties were light she had abundant 
time to browse. The library had been selected largely to 
furnish entertainment, and not entirely on the ground of 
high literary merit. 

One day this young girl pulled down from its shelf 
an inferior novel which dealt with the court of Henry VIII. 
A few minutes found her absorbed in its pages, and for 
days she lived in that court, dazed and fascinated by its 
strange, mysterious life. That book finished, she was eager 
to know more of the story of the time, and she read on 
and on and back and back into the history of that wonderful 



42 THE TEACHER 

monarchy. From the reading of that novel her interest in 
Enghsh History began and on that foundation she built 
up the knowledge that made her later a most successful 
teacher of the subject. 

A word ought to be said about newspaper reading, but 

the suggestions to men and to women should be entirely 

different. Most men read too many papers and 

Reacfing'^^'' spend too much time upon them ; women as a 

rule neglect newspapers altogether or read 

them for certain personal feminine interest. 

It is the duty of evcrj^one to know from one or two first- 
class daily papers what is going on in the world. To do 
that it is not necessary to spend an hour upon each sheet. 
The ability to examine a paper a column at a time almost, and 
yet get out of it all that is vital, is an ability that everyone 
ought to cultivate. The full head-lines are a sufficient 
guide to the contents of each article, and there is only a 
small part of each newspaper that is of the slightest 
importance to any one individual. A quick scanning of 
the captions will determine what is of value to the reader. 
A large portion of every issue can be passed by without 
further attention. The few things that are of general or 
individual interest may be read carefully. When this is 
correctly done, it need take only a short time. 

The hour has struck when it is necessary for women 
as well as men to keep pace with the world's doings. To do 
this quickly and easily each teacher should have her own 
daily paper, to be her personal propert3^ She should not 
depend upon the chance of catching a few minutes at the 
newspaper after the man or men of the house are through 
and willing graciously to let her have a late glance at it. 
Let each woman have her own paper, read it quickly, get- 



^ 



LIFE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL 43 

ting out of it all that belongs to her, and then pass on to 
the next duty or pleasure. 

Too great stress cannot be placed upon the health of a 
teacher. The sickly, fagged, nervous woman has no right 
in the school-room. The resistance that the 
work offers can be successfully met only with ["P^^'^^^^:^^ 
perfect health. 

The time ought to come, doubtless will come in the course 
of the great hygienic movement sweeping over the coun- 
try, when only the strong and vigorous may be employed 
in our schools. Frequent and long-continued illness ought 
to disqualify anyone for the profession. Haste the day 
when this shall be true. Hard as this may be upon those 
teaching for a living, it is right, and nothing else is just 
to the schools and their children. 

In view of the fact that no one can work to full efficiency 
unless he is well, the duty becomes imperative to give the 
health intelligent consideration. The greatest 
difficulty in the way of this care on the part of Exercise 
a teacher is the difficulty of getting sufficient 
outdoor exercise. The exercise that comes as recreation 
through play is the most beneficial. Every opportunity of 
this sort should be taken advantage of. Golf is especially 
good if within reach, and can be equally enjoyed by young 
and old. Tennis is excellent^ and there is open to anyone 
the exercise of walking. The walk with a purpose and in 
good company is the best. It is rather dull business to start 
out to go so many miles just for the exercise, but even that 
is better than sitting down indoors for the same length 
of time. 

To the normal healthy body, walking is a pleasure, and 
the woman who cannot do five miles a day with comparative 
ease needs to get into training, for she has not the physical 



44 THE TEACHER 

energy which her daily work demands. As in other things, 
there are exceptions to this statement, but in general it is 
true. 

If outdoor exercise is not practical, then, as a last resort, 
gymnastic exercises in one's own room with dumb-bells, 
wands, or Indian clubs, should become a regular practice. 
Each individual will have to decide after experiment upon 
what gives the best result, as well as upon the best time for 
taking the exercises. There is no end of systems, and 
whichever one is decided upon it should be taken with 
abundant fresh air, windows wide open, and lungs deep 
filled with oxygen. 

It ought not to be necessary in these days of outdoor 
sleeping to say anything about the importance of good air 
at night. But it is still true that some people are afraid 
of drafts. The way to avoid danger from drafts is to fill 
the room so completely with fresh air that drafts disappear. 
Throwing all the windows wide open necessitates warmer 
bedding, and this added warmth should be supplied with 
as little weight as possible. 

In the question of exercise and fresh air, as in all other 
questions, the individual has to be considered. No two 
physical organizations thrive under identical treatment. 

The social life of a teacher should, so far as possible, be 
passed with people outside the profession. And this not 
because other people are necessarily more inter- 
Profession esting, but because they are different. It is one 
of the ways of keeping the rut from getting too 
deep. The long day in the school-room is all of that kind 
of life that is necessary. When the day is over, get as 
far away from it as possible; do not talk about school; 
do not dream school if you can help it. 



LIFE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL 45 

On the other hand, it is affectation to attempt to conceal 
your occupation. 

It is no disgrace to be known as a teacher and there are 
times when school talk is a good asset. We all like to hear 
about the lives of others in various occupations; those 
outside the profession of teaching are often glad to hear 
the interesting, dramatic, and amusing things that belong 
to school days. It is one thing to furnish out of your 
experience bits of entertaining conversation at the proper 
time, and quite a different matter to drag your school 
into the presence of people who have no interest in it, 
to be narrow and to talk of nothing else than your work. 
Such an individual becomes an insufferable bore. There 
are too many such in the ranks. Every line of life puts 
certain marks upon its followers and school-teaching, 
especially, seems to furnish some very undesirable ones. 
At least it is not generally considered a compliment to be 
recognized as a teacher anywhere and everywhere. Most 
of these distinctive marks are the result of narrowed lives. 

Broader experience, wider life, is the remedy. The 
teacher who is first and last a big-souled, red-blooded 
human being is pretty sure to be first and last and all the 
time a successful teacher. 



CHAPTER IV 
RELATION TO PUPILS 

The success or failure of a teacher depends largely upon 
the character of the relations which she establishes and main- 
tains, first, toward the school as a whole, and second, toward 
each individual in it. 

It used to be true that a teacher was expected, upon 
entering the school-room, to assume an attitude especially 
fitted for the occasion, to don a certain added 
Naturalness dignity. In fact the instructor was expected 
to be one person outside the school-room, 
another within its walls, and that second personality must 
be emphatically the personality of the pedagogue. 

School is not a stage upon which one is expected to play 
a part, but a bit of real life where naturalness is the prime 
requisite. It never demands any different manner, any 
different facial expression, any different tone of voice, any 
different lift of the head, any difference in any singular 
particular. Let the individual that you are walk straight 
into the school-room. Once there, be yourself every 
moment. There is no other safe principle of action either 
in the school-room or out of it. 

The severest criticism that can be brought against the 
kindergarten is along this line. The fault does not lie in 
the system but in the numbers of incompetent young women 
who take up the work with little education because they 
have to do something and "because they like children." 

46 



RELATION TO PUPILS 47 

Thej never quite grasp its fundamental idea. They too 
often have simply taken on the instruction without assimi- 
lating it, — have become poor imitators instead of acting 
spontaneously out of their own natures. They affect get- 
ting down to the child, not knowing that the ordinary 
individual must stand on tip-toe most of the time to reach 
up to the level of the child. 

There is no use in describing the results of these en- 
deavors; no need of calling attention to the artificial atti- 
tude of a certain type of kindergarten teachers, to their 
affected tone of voice, their lovey-dovey manner, the smile 
that is lip service only. Most schools have had one of them 
at some time. 

While the kindergartners are especial offenders, they are 
by no means the only ones. Their prototype can be found 
all the way up through the high school. Expressions of 
surprise are often heard from school-children when they 
accidentally discover that their teachers are possessed of 
like passions and like interests with themselves. 

A girl in a boarding-school, returning from an after- 
noon tea, burst into the room of a friend exclaiming, 
"What do you think ! Miss So-and-so was there all dressed 
up and actually pouring tea ! I never thought she could do 
such a frivolous thing." 

The profession will never come fully into its own until 
this tendency vanishes. Affectation and posing are to 
be carefully avoided. 

Affectation is often, if not always, the result of self- 
consciousness tinged with egotism. Someone has forcefully 
expressed the difference between an elocution- 
ist and an orator by saying that the elocutionist Jfjousnes's 
thinks of himself; the orator, of his message. 
In a similar way, the affected teacher is always conscious 



48 THE TEACHER 

of self; the natural teacher forgets self in the intensity 
of her work. 

Young teachers are prone to be very jealous of their 
professional dignity and to guard it religiously from the 
slightest profanation. A few years' successful 
Dfon?ti?' teaching will show that the welfare of the chil- 

dren is vastly more important than any personal 
dignity that has to be upheld by artificial means. 

A young teacher once stepped into a recitation room 
where an experienced woman was working with a large 
class in algebra. She was down among the class with the 
pupils coming to her for help. The order of deadly dull- 
ness was absent ; the commotion of intense activity, directed 
activity, was present. 

When the hour was over, the younger teacher came back 
with her question: "How dare you get down off your 
platform and let a class work anywhere as they were doing 
just now.f^ I should expect to compromise my dignity 
by doing it." 

"I never thought of my pedagogical dignity," was the 
repl3^ "I was teaching algebra. I don't believe I have 
demoralized the class, though. Come in tomorrow and see 
how they behave." 

The dignity that has to be propped up or placed upon 
the pedestal of the platform ought to meet its downfall 
as soon as possible. There is a dignity that every teacher 
should try to attain, the dignity of doing excellent w^ork, 
of winning the respect of pupils unconsciously, and that 
can be attained only by being natural. 

The teacher in charge of any set or class of pupils 
stands in something of the relation of hostess to them, 
responsible for their comfort, happiness, and general well- 
being while in the school-house. 



RELATION TO PUPILS 49 

From the time that she is there, the school-room is the 
teacher's home and the standard which a true hostess should 
set for herself is none too high. Let us exam- 
ine some of the things demanded of a good ^f^^foYm"^* 
hostess. 

In the first place, she must set her house in order. She 
must give it the best possible appearance consistent with her 
circumstances. No home is in good taste that is not in 
harmony with the life lived there. No school-room is in 
good taste that is not harmonious with school life. 

Much has been written and more said on the subject of 
school decoration. Much has been done and overdone in 
this direction. It is not meant that any school has ever 
been made too beautiful, but many teachers, in attempting 
decoration, have crowded their rooms and covered their 
walls with things that have no place there. 

All ornamentation should be clear-cut, should have mean- 
ing, and should contain nothing that cannot be easily 
dusted and kept sanitary. Decorations and pictures should 
not be crowded. Each should be so placed as to stand out 
clearly, its character undiminished by the encroachments 
of other things. 

The wide difference in individuals shows itself in the 
appearance of the place where they spend their time. The 
peculiar air given by the touch of individuality is what 
every room, both in school and out, ought to have, and 
that can emanate only from the personality which domi- 
nates it. 

No matter how humble the room, how simply furnished, 
certain elements of perfection can be obtained, 
those of cleanliness and order. The teacher Order 
in charge is responsible for the condition of 
neatness. Teachers sometimes complain of janitors, but 



50 THE TEACHER 

even when these are most wilhng and efficient, there is 
always something left to be done. 

Young people are careless and often untidy. The ex- 
ample of an orderly teacher moving quietly about the room, 
putting things in place here and there will have greater 
influence than much speaking. The picking up of scattered 
paper from the vicinity of a desk, just as a lady would 
do it in her own home, w^ill have more eff'ect upon the 
pupils than any order from the school-mistress to do it as 
a penalty for carelessness. It will not take many repeti- 
tions of this bit of housekeeping to make all watchful for 
untidiness about their own seats, and there will grow 
up a general pride in the neatness of the room. Soon it 
will not be an unusual sight to observe a girl, and some- 
times a boy, picking up scraps of paper or bits of chalk 
wherever they are encountered. 

Individual desks will also demand attention, otherwise 
books will be tumbled into them helter-skelter. A guiding 
daily word to particularly careless children and an occa- 
sional general housecleaning will meet the difficulty. It will 
not adjust itself, however, without the personal attention 
of the teacher. 

We have already discussed the importance of a teacher's 
attire, but certain phases of it have special bearing here. 
Retaining the simile of hostess, remember, 
Clothes that it is her duty never to be dressed in 

extreme contrast to the possibilities of her 
guests. She should be so attired that the poorest pupil 
in the room need not feel unpleasantly conscious of her 
clothes. The teacher should be a worthy leader in the mat- 
ter of dress, but she must allow her f ollow^ers to keep her in 
sight. We live in a work-a-day w^orld and the clothes should 
be work-a-day clothes. This does not stand in the way 



RELATION TO PUPILS 51 

of their being artistic, dainty, and perfect of their kind, 
but it should bar the wearing in school of all material not 
adapted to hard usage. It should bar all elaborately 
made garments and all useless ornaments. This will leave 
not only a compact-looking, well-dressed woman, but the 
woman best dressed for the occasion. The silent teaching 
of such a toilet will eventually eliminate all bedecked and 
beribboned girls and will put in the place of flummery, the 
kind of clothes of which the girl becomes entirely uncon- 
scious, and that is the perfection of dressing. 

The code of manners for both teacher and pupil should 
be the same in the school-room as anywhere else in good 
society. The teacher should insist upon the 
same standards that a lady would expect from Manners 
her guests whom she receives in her own home. 
There is this difference, however, that the teacher's position 
renders it possible for her to make suggestions which she 
might not feel at liberty to offer in general society. 

It is easy in the strain and hurry of the day for the 
teacher to forget to demand from the children the little 
politenesses which they should know how to show to their 
elders. The same courtesies should be given a teacher that, 
in a well-ordered home, the children show to their mothers. 
It is to be remembered, too, that many homes are not well 
ordered and so it becomes doubly the duty of the school 
to supply this training. 

Rising when speaking to an elder, standing until a lady 
is seated, being thoughtful to pick up fallen articles, and 
ready to perform any little service, and stepping aside 
to allow a lady to precede him, — these are some of the 
important trifles that mark the gentlemanly boy. Boys 
need more attention in these matters; girls are keener to 
understand and more careful to follow conventions. 



52 THE TEACHER 

There is a time in a boy's life when he is apt to despise 
all these courtesies. This is especially true if he comes 
from a home where they are entirely foreign to the life. 
The first lesson, in such cases, is to show that all these 
things, instead of being silly and frivolous, the attributes 
of effeminacy, have their foundation in a spirit of manly 
chivalr}'-. 

An interesting struggle once took place between a cer- 
tain school and the teacher. The entire roomful had come 
to her strangers. She soon discovered that it never entered 
the heads of any of them to say "Good morning" to her 
when they met in halls or school-rooms, as they would have 
done elsewhere. This teacher did not wish to speak to 
the children about it because it was her habit to mention 
nothing formally that could be brought home in any other 
way. She began quietly but insistently to address each 
one by name just as she would have done had she met him 
on the street. It took several months to complete the 
campaign, but they eventually all said not only "Good 

morning" but "Good morning, Miss ," w^hich was 

what the teacher had been struggling for. Good manners 
are contagious. 

These are details, to be sure, but important ones, and 
whether they are right or wrong depends entirely upon the 
standards of the teacher and upon her power to bring the 
school up to them. Any teacher is markedly failing in her 
full duty if she does not follow up all breaches of etiquette 
until good manners become habitual and unconscious. 

But there are other things even more important than 

matters of politeness. While these all have 

Justice their influence and a strong influence, the vital 

thing, after all, is the way in w^hich the spirit of 

the teacher appeals to and meets response from her pupils. 



RELATION TO PUPILS 53 

Nothing makes a stronger appeal to young people than 
justice. They have a keen sense of their rights and will 
fight for them to the last ditch. On the other hand, most 
childfen will take without murmur any punishment that 
they feel is merited and will put up with anything that 
they see is necessar}^ They may not like it, they may wish 
to get out of paying the price, but there is never any 
complaint against the teacher when the justice of the 
penalty or the situation is plain. The teacher who wins 
the reputation of being "square" has made long strides 
toward success. 

A teacher stands constantly in the position of judge. 
Case after case is presented and decision often has to be 
made instantly, and these decisions, in the main, must he 
right. An occasional mistake is not fatal, but warfare, 
rebellion, and a constant irritation will be the portion of 
the frequent offender against just dealing. 

Hand in hand with justice walks mercy, and in the meting 
out of mercy lurks great danger. A given amount of a 
certain drug may be beneficial; an overdose, 
fatal. So is it with mercy. Weakness is to Mercy 
be guarded against ; tender-heartedness is to be 
kept under control. The good of the individual pupil is to 
be considered, without losing sight of the effect upon the 
school as a whole, in the handling of any specific case. 

The seemingly kindly thing is often not true kindness. 
Indulgence is not always mercy. It is sometimes necessary 
to "be cruel only to be kind." 

The mistake is often made of yielding to the desire to 
save the child from suffering, even to the extent of pro- 
tecting him from the consequences of his own wrong doing. 
At first glance it would seem that the teacher who was most 
indulgent would bind a school to her with hoops of steel. 



54 THE TEACHER 

Strange to say, that is seldom the case. In the long run, 
the successful teacher, the one who is held in the highest 
regard by the school, is the teacher who brings the offender 
into just judgment and holds him to logical consequences. 
She does this, not in anger, not with irritation, but with 
kindly firmness. She deals justly, loves mercy, and uses 
it wisely, not weakly. 

Personal influence has in it a certain element of power, 
but there is danger in its overuse. Young people readily 
become hero worshipers and will do almost any- 
TrffiSen^l ^^^'^^S that is the will of their idol. 

This personal influence may be a legitimate 
influence in gaining first control, but to depend upon it is 
enervating. All action to which one is impelled from with- 
out is more or less uncertain, and the boy or girl who does 
right solely because the feelings of the teacher would 
otherwise be hurt is not strengthening character. 

The teacher should guide, direct, and advise; -should 
sometimes use authority, but she must eventually be able 
to slip the supporting hand from beneath the swimmer 
and see him cleave the waters alone. 

Young teachers are especially tempted to err on the side 
of overestimating the importance of this purely personal 
influence. If rightly used, it is of value, but the danger 
of too great dependence upon it is serious. 

A certain attitude of friendship between teacher and 

pupil is desirable. This will differ somewhat from other 

friendships but it is equally strong during the 

Friendship time it obtains and frequently develops into a 

lifelong bond. 

Childhood is a stormy, troubled time. Many days con- 
tain disappointments and sorrows. Most of these are really 
very small, but to the child they are overwhelming, espe- 



RELATION TO PUPILS 55 

ciallj if he is left to wrestle with them alone. The teacher 
of forbidding attitude will compel him to struggle unaided ; 
the teacher who is the right sort will become "a very 
present help in trouble." 

If the child has the right kind of confidence, he will 
bring the trouble frankly to the teacher, who can usually 
dispose of it or assist him to see things in proper propor- 
tions. Unbounded respect is essential, but fear, other than 
the wholesome regard for a natural superior, has no place 
in the relation between teacher and pupil. 

The child sees life from his own point of view and his 
action is determined by the vision he gets from that view- 
point. To be sure, that is constantly changing, but it is a 
part of the teacher's highest duty to know the horizon line 
of the child at any given time. In no particular do teachers 
make more failures than in not measuring accurately the 
horizon radius of their children. Many teachers see con- 
ditions through their own eyes and then trv to force the 
child to meet them. Whoever would deal justly and wisely 
must look through the child's eyes and from that position 
help him to steer a straight course. 

The ideal attitude is that of guide and friend. The 
guide goes ahead and points the way; he 
scans with clear vision the lay of the land and Atmude 
the strength of his followers to meet its diffi- 
culties; the friend reaches out a sustaining hand when the 
strength of the traveler is insufficient. 



CHAPTER V 
RELATION TO ASSOCIATES 

No teacher is ever supreme. He may be at the head 
of a given educational system but even then there is some 
board in authority over him. In other positions, teachers 
are subject to heads of departments, principals, and superin- 
tendents, and at the same time are working side by side 
with associate teachers. 

A part of success depends upon the attitude of the indi- 
vidual toward these associates. When the attitude is right, 
relations are pleasant and there is no problem. Unfor- 
tunately this is not always the case. 

School boards are sometimes merely political machines ; 

even when the men composing them desire to deal justly 

and uprightly, they often have no training 

loards either cultural or administrative for the 

position. 

Whatever opinion the teacher may hold of the school 
board, either individually or as a body, the fact remains 
that she is an employee of that board. Whoever accepts 
a position in the gift either of an individual, or a board, 
tacitly agrees to work in accord with the policy of that 
individual or board. 

It is not often that a school board interferes directly 
with the work of the individual teacher; that supervision 
is delegated to superintendent or principal. It does occur, 
however, that teachers may not wholly approve of certain 

56 



RELATION TO ASSOCIATES 57 

policies of the board. When this is the case, what should 
be the attitude of the teacher? 

First and foremost, it is excellent practice in any walk 
in life to attend rather strictly to one's own business. 
Sometimes it is a difficult matter to determine just where 
the line should be drawn between what is our affair and 
what we should leave alone. No one can assume the entire 
responsibility of matters terrestrial, and the person who 
keeps his own plot of ground in order has little time to peer 
over the fence at the weeds in his neighbor's garden. It is 
well to remember, too, that several men have amassed great 
fortunes by attending strictly to their own business. 

"Inasmuch as lieth within you, live peaceably with all 
men." Harmony is desirable and criticism of school boards, 
never a part of a teacher's duty, is not conducive to har- 
mony. The cases are rare, anyway, where the two ever 
need to come into close contact. 

It may be something of a blow to one's pride, but, as a 
rule, the board is interested in individual teachers only as 
any other employer is interested in those to whom he pa3^s 
a wage. What the emploj^er wants is results. If they are 
not forthcoming, he demands a change to one who can 
produce what is wanted. After the appointments are made, 
the board usually forgets the teacher, turning over all 
responsibility of success or failure to the superintendent. 
When the year rolls around, one question will be asked, 
"Has such or such a teacher made good?" If the answer 
is in the affirmative, her position is secured; if not, she is 
of no further value to them. 

So true is this that in a school where there was serious 
friction for years, one teacher who had been disagreeably 
aggressive in her opposition to the administration and to 
the board, was retained because she was one of the best 



58 THE TEACHER 

teachers in the corps. She held her place because she got 
results, — did more than well the work she was hired to do. 
Another case illustrates both the absolute authority of 
the board and the value of good work. Several excellent 
teachers were once dismissed in a most summary manner 
because they had expressed hearty disapproval of the 
general policy of the school board. These teachers had 
a perfect right to their opinion but they voiced it in no 
mild terms at every opportunity. They thought they were 
acting honorably by being thus open, but the only result 
of their action was the keeping of the town in an unpleasant 
wrangle through the summer and the final loss of their 
positions. They accomplished none of the things they had 
hoped to bring about, for the board did not change its 
policy in a single particular. But these women were valu- 
able teachers and, after giving them their lesson during 
the summer, the board reinstated them in September under 
the same administration. 

The relation between the teacher and the superintendent 
or principal is much closer and so is of prime importance. 

It is impossible for a school to attain its high- 
tendent or est efficiency unless this relation is right. In 

making it right, a large share of the responsi- 
bility rests with the teachers. 

When a principal first takes charge of a school, he finds 
in it many teachers who have long held their positions. 

The school and its routine are familiar to them ; 

Attitude of -.i .i 

Experienced they have personal acquamtance with the pu- 
pils ; they know each other. Either they were 
devoted to the last principal or they are glad of the change. 
The teachers are upon familiar ground; the principal is 
the stranger, the work all untried. 

The attitude toward the newcomer should, from the first, 



RELATION TO ASSOCIATES 69 

be one of confidence. This will usually be the case if his 
predecessor has not been entirely satisfactory, for the 
faculty welcomes the change and is hopeful. To follow 
a successful man is often difficult. The feeling that no one 
else can administer the school efficiently is natural, and com- 
parisons between the former principal and the present one 
will not be to the advantage of the one now in authority. 

The new man will never be exactly like the old one; he 
will not conduct the school in the same manner. But is it 
not barely possible that he will do some things better .^^ If 
the retiring principal was a valuable man, he probably left 
to take a better position. While regretting their loss, the 
teachers should be proud of his success, and remembering 
that the new man was in no way responsible for the change, 
should give him complete allegiance. 

Everyone does his best under approval and in an atmos- 
phere of sympathy. The new principal or superintendent 
should at once be made to feel the full loyalty of his 
teachers and their willingness to give him every 
assistance and support in all endeavors for ad- Loyalty 
vancement of the institution. 

Any school system that is well organized will run for a 
time without much impetus from the superintendent. A 
person entering a new position is apt to take advantage 
of this fact and for a time to let things run on pretty 
nearly in their accustomed channels. This is his time for 
studying the situation, finding out what he approves and 
studying the things that, in his judgment, should be 
changed. 

During this period the teachers can be of great assist- 
ance. They should make their superintendent feel that 
they are glad to give all information that may be desired. 
It will sometimes be wise to volunteer information, not 



60 THE TEACHER 

officiously but in such a manner as will testify to complete 
loyalty and a desire to be helpful. In such case it is well 
to select the pleasant and the interesting things. The 
unpleasant come all too readily to the surface. There are 
thousands of incidents that cluster around school life that 
are worth the telling, all going to make the background 
for a wise final judgment of the school's condition and 
needs. There are things to be told about individual pupils, 
their success in classes, their attitude toward each other 
and toward the teachers, their part in the various activities. 
Any knowledge of home conditions is bound to be valuable. 

The opportunity to mention these things will arise nat- 
urally as the life of the school moves along in its beaten 
track. They offer natural subjects of conversation and 
through informal talks on these subjects, superintendent 
and teachers become acquainted with each other as well as 
with the school. 

One error should be carefully guarded against. Do not 
tell how the previous superintendent did this or that ; be 
very careful how 3^ou quote him. It will be time enough 
to give information about his methods when that informa- 
tion is specifically asked for. 

When teachers have worked long together and know each 
other well, the desire to talk things over is a strong one. 
There is a tendency to discuss the new superior 
Things^ Over ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ peculiarities and to contrast man- 
ner, attitude, and methods with those of his 
predecessor. All this can do no good and will usually 
result in harm. First judgments are not always correct 
and where there is in them the slightest touch of the 
unfavorable, it may be well to keep them to yourself. The 
man who does not strike 3^ou favorably at first because 
of some preconceived notion of what you had expected, 



RELATION TO ASSOCIATES 61 

may later prove all that you could desire. If that is the 
case, you will be glad if you have kept your unfavorable 
criticism to yourself. 

Further, even if there be some element of truth in your 
feeling or judgment, talking it over only magnifies it and 
makes you all feel that it is worse than it really is. 

The impression that comes forth solidified in words be- 
comes more or less permanent. If it exists in silence, it is 
more easily eradicated even from your own mind. 

Unfortunately for all of us, it is not entirely outside of 
experience for strong, efficient teachers to have placed over 
them a superior officer not nearl}^ as competent 
to do the work of the position as the teachers peiatfon 
themselves. Such a situation is unpleasant and 
difficult and it requires unusual force of character to meet 
it properly. 

It will never do to lose sight of the fact that the office 
carries with it a certain dignity and demands a certain 
amount of respect. Perhaps the teacher may not like 
the individual in authority ; that has nothing to do with 
the official attitude unless it make the teacher even more 
punctilious in the discharge of every duty involving rela- 
tions with her superior. Personal irritation and personal 
feeling should as little as possible tinge official conduct. 

A certain city was to elect a superintendent. There were 
several candidates, some far less desirable than others. The 
least capable, in the estimation of most of the teachers 
and the better element of the city, won. More than that, 
the opinion was current that his victory was due to some- 
what dubious methods. While the matter was pending, 
those teachers who had a decided preference for another 
candidate, used their influence for him. This was legitimate, 
for they had a right as citizens to express their preference 



6^ THE TEACHER 

and to work for the candidate of their choice. The other 
man was elected, however, and at once the relation between 
him and the teachers changed. 

Possibly he was not as good a man for the position as 
the other would have been, but the fact remained that he 
had been elected and so had become the one under whom 
they were to work. 

There were some teachers who could not drop the fight 
even after the battle had been decided but continued to 
work against the new superintendent In every direction. 
One woman In particular, high In autliorlty and an excel- 
lent teacher, could never bring herself to offer the man 
ordinary courtesy. She avoided him when possible and 
when that could not be done, treated him with such extreme 
coldness as to amount to rudeness. She criticized another 
teacher for showing this official some attention upon one 
of his visits to their building. 

"You are not honest," said the disaffected w^oman. "You 
w^orked against this man as hard as anvone else and now 
you treat him as though you approved of him. I don't see 
how you can bear to talk to him. You don't like him an}^ 
better than I do, and yet 3'ou are polite to him." 

The answer contained much good philosophy. 

"You fail to understand that I was not paying attention 

to Mr. as an individual, but was trying to treat 

courteously the superintendent of our schools." 

That particular superintendent, in his official capacity, 
was not inefficient. He knew much about schools and. In 
the main, administered them well. While he was a poli- 
tician and a self-seeker, he was considerate of his teachers 
and really helpful, never interfering with anyone unless 
that person got In the way and blocked the path between 
him and some personal ambition. In that case, the obstacle 



RELATION TO ASSOCIATES 63 

went down. Those teachers who went ahead and did their 
work to the best of their abiHty had no trouble. 

Another school had been under the administration of one 
man for many years. Everything was in excellent condi- 
tion and the corps of teachers somewhat un- y^e Unsat- 
usual, for most of them had been long in the super?or 
school and had worked in harmony with each 
other and with the administration. In the middle of the 
year, the superintendent was called to another city. The 
retiring official was large-minded, big-hearted, and pos- 
sessed of great confidence in human nature. His was 
a strong personality and he had put the stamp of it upon 
the entire organization. He possessed keen intuitions and 
other qualifications which had been the means of gathering 
around him this body of especially competent teachers. 

He knew these teachers and believed in them, but his suc- 
cessor had no faith in anyone, either teacher or pupil. 
The new superintendent was sure that girls and boys were 
always on mischief bent and when he saw two or three 
teachers gathered together, he was sure they were plotting 
deeply his overthrow. 

Under the old administration the teachers had been as 
one family, living happily together and w^orking in mutual 
confidence for the common good. Their first supposition 
was that their new superior felt himself to be one of them 
and they treated him accordingly. But their every advance 
was repulsed, their every act looked upon with suspicion. 

This type of man was new to these teachers. Fortu- 
nately such an official is not often placed in authorit3\ 

Under a superintendent of this character, what is the 
duty of the teacher .^^ 

First — She should do everything possible to change con- 
ditions and to make them right. 



64 THE TEACHER 

Second — She should avoid pubhc criticism of her superior. 

Third (and this is the last resort) — After making sure 
that conditions are intolerable and will remain so, she 
should resign. There is no other dignified course. The 
subordinate teacher can never forcibly or by rebellion 
change the state of things determined by a superior. 

A leading teacher In the system described above reached 
just this situation. To make sure that there was no hope 
of relief, she went to the president of the school board 
and frankly stated the case as she saw It and told him what 
she thought of the possibilities of final success. She was 
treated with every courtesy but saw that the policy of the 
board was to retain the official another year. It was not 
a pleasant state of things to face, but nothing was left 
for her but to resign, and her example was followed by six 
or eight of the other tried teachers. 

Wherever an individual is employed, he should work 
in harmony with the administration or resign. "Get out 
or get in line" applies as well to schools as to any other 
business. 

The only other course is that of bringing the situation 
to general public attention and arousing a sentiment of 
opposition to the superintendent. 

AiterSatfve "^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ *^^^^ ^^^^ ^"^ ^^^^ again. It 

results in a most unsavory commotion in the 
community, an immense amount of hard feeling, and usu- 
ally in the final overthrow of the subordinates who have 
attempted to stir up a revolution and bring about a reform. 
The acceptance of a position Is voluntary and the remain- 
ing in it usually a matter of choice. You may have mis- 
judged conditions when taking the place or they may liave 
changed later. In either case, the improvement of them 



RELATION TO ASSOCIATES 66 

is not your responsibility except through such influence 
as you may be able to exert by attending to your own 
business closely and thoroughly. 

There are cases where, for some personal reason, it is 
imperative that a teacher remain in a certain place. Then 
her only course is to stay there as patiently 
and independently as she can. She will not N|cess?ty^ 
be comfortable but she can endure. Her atti- 
tude must be wisely politic, avoiding all unpleasantness, 
keeping close to her own beat, holding the kingdom of her 
own room as nearly as she can to her own ideals, but 
3^ielding when necessary on such points as do not involve 
a principle or are not vitally important. 

The relation to fellow teachers also demands attention. 
To live in harmony with all of them is not an easy task, and 
yet the successful individual must accomplish 
this, not by undue giving up of rights, not yllchers 
by flattery or fawning, but through tactful 
handling of every situation, no matter how difficult. 

Jealousy is the thing most likely to demand avoidance, 
for there are myriads of chances for it to creep into the 
daily routine. The one thought to be held 
uppermost is the good of the school. If one Jealousy 
teacher can do something better than you can, 
and that is bound often to be the case, help that person 
to the opportunity ; do not stand enviously back or put 
obstacles in the way. There are other things which you 
can do and which no one else can do equally well. Till 
your own garden plot diligently, but do not throw your 
weeds over into your neighbor's field. 

Every opportunity to aid in the administration of the 
school should be carefully watched. To do this and to take 



66 THE TEACHER 

advantage of such opportunity without seeming officious 

and without seeming to usurp the rights of someone else, 

requires decided tact. 

No teacher can ever be of the fullest value 
Opportunity i i i • 

and to any school who is not alert for opportuni- 

Obligation . *^ . . , ^^ 

ties to assist m the general administration. 

No one person can ever take the entire responsibility of 

the discipline of any school, because no one human 

being can be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. 

There must be one head to determine the general policy 

and to direct it; there must be one steady hand to hold 

everything in unison, but the teachers constant assistance 

is needed for the successful school. 

Each teacher should feel responsible for whatever comes 
under her observation. I do not mean by this that teachers 
should turn themselves into spies, — Heaven forbid! Let 
them go about their own business, but when they come 
across something that is not right, let them attend to it 
then and there, assuming that it is a part of their business 
to right a wrong wherever encountered. There are too 
many teachers who take no action when they see a breach 
of discipline, a violation of good manners, or what is worse, 
a failure in integrity even where the offenders know they 
have been observed. Instead of settling the matter, they 
pass on without a word, perhaps to talk it over with the 
next teacher and complain of the discipline of a school 
where such a thing is possible. Perhaps the discipline 
is worthy of criticism, but it is because principals and 
others in authority continue such teachers in their positions. 

He who is not willing to do more than his technical duty 
has not yet risen to full worthiness in his work. Each 
teacher is morally bound to do everything possible for every 



RELATION TO ASSOCIATES 67 

boj and girl in the school and any neglect of general duty 
is a failure in this direction. 

The scornful question "Am I my brother's keeper?" 
did not receive at its historic asking, an answer that ab- 
solved future generations from responsibility under similar 
circumstances. A teacher is the keeper of all young people 
directly or indirectly under her charge. For the rights 
of the individual boy or girl, for the honor of the school, 
and for her own final good, she may not deny it. She may 
not repudiate the claim upon her service whenever that 
service seems to be needed. Team work among teachers 
is as important as it is on the football field. 



CHAPTER VI 
RELATION TO PARENTS 

The chasm which today yawns between teacher and par- 
ents is a wide one and not easy to bridge. The very best 
efforts of an energetic teacher will bring her within hailing 
distance of only a small percentage of her patrons. She 
should work unremittingly, however, to the end of reaching 
the largest possible number, watching every opportunity 
and taking advantage of every opening. 

All schools should, most of them do, have some system 
by which reports of pupils go home at regular intervals. 
Much of this bears no visible fruit, elicits no 
Rep'orts response from parents; and unless there is a 

method of checking there is no way of knowing 
whether such notices ever reach their destination. This 
indifference, however, has no bearing on the plain duty 
of giving an acount of your stewardship. 

In this formal notification the individual teacher has little 
responsibility beyond seeing that the records of scholarship, 
absence, and tardiness are properly filled out and sent. 

Everywhere in business there is increased attention to 
the personal touch. A certain manufacturing establish- 
ment keeps a regular card catalogue of its 
Personal customers. Into this o-oes every bit of infor- 

Touch . ^ -^ . 

mation that can be gathered either through 
their salesmen, through the newspapers, or through corre- 
spondence. If a customer has recently added a new front 
to his building or moved into a new store or enlarged his 

68 



RELATION TO PARENTS 69 

business, that is recorded with date. If someone associated 
with a firm has married or bought a new house or an auto- 
mobile, that, being of interest to the customer, becomes 
at once a bit of working capital for the manufacturer. 
All this knowledge cannot come first hand to the man who 
uses it, but all the traveling salesmen are instructed that 
it is a definite part of their day's work to gather such 
information and write it to the house. 

When a customer comes to the factory, through refer- 
ence to this record, he at once becomes something more than 
John Smith, and the individual whose business it is to look 
after him has clear and definite data upon which to base 
both pleasant chat and real business talk. 

Something of the same method is possible of adaptation 
to our own work. Every bit of information about pupils, 
their homes, their parents, and their friends, that is gained 
even accidentally, should be pigeon-holed in the brain for 
possible future use. The time is pretty sure to come when 
it will throw valuable side light upon some troublesome 
situation. 

The home often complains that it is not informed of the 
shortcomings of the children and parents insist that these 
would have been corrected had they been known. 

The school, on the other hand, complains, and justly 
of the general indifference of the home. The teacher 
claims that she has done the best she could alone. Every 
effort should be made to change this condition. 

A teacher's technical duty may be performed when she 
has filled out and sent the printed blanks. Yet, these are 
cold, formal affairs, utterly impersonal, and 
often have a strange power to produce irrita- Notes"^' 
tion entirely unexpected. The thoughtful per- 
son with eye alert for every opportunity will frequently 



70 THE TEACHER 

supplement these notices with a well-considered personal 
note. To be sure, this takes time, and to do it well is an art 
in itself. 

Such notes should never be fulsome, but should ring with 
a genuine interest. Of course, the interest must first be 
genuine ; the expression of it will then be natural and such 
as to produce a helpful response. 

It may be necessary to criticize the poor work that Mary 
is doing in arithmetic, but if she is making some headway 
in geography or really doing very well in English, do not 
forget to mention that, too. Occasionally cases arise where 
the teacher can find no adequate explanation for a child's 
failure. A tactfully worded note frankly asking the co- 
operation and assistance of the home has often brought 
out information that has led to a wise and complete solution 
of all difficulties. 

Adverse criticism is easy and in the teaching profession 
gets to be so much of a habit that we forget to call attention 
to the encouraging features. Parents like to hear pleasant 
things about their children. It may be worth while some- 
times to sit down in cold blood and write a note to a parent 
expressing your satisfaction in the excellent work that the 
child is doing. 

A teacher received a class of twenty. They were all new 
to her and the parents were all strangers. Within two weeks 
she had written a personal note to each mother. These 
notes were not dictated to the school stenographer nor were 
they all of a pattern, but were written with her own hand 
on her own characteristic stationery, and were as individual 
as she could make them from what information she had 
gathered concerning the children and their homes. 

The results surprised even the writer, for every note 
elicited either a pleasant response or a personal call, and 



RELATION TO PARENTS 71 

she always felt that she got a little nearer this class than 
she had to any of its predecessors. 

It once became necessary to inform the parents of sev- 
eral members of the senior class in a certain high school 
that the work of these pupils had not been strong enough 
to admit of their being graduated at the time expected. 
The teacher, whose duty it was to write these notes, took 
them to the principal for criticism before she mailed them. 

After reading he remarked, "You have said an unpleas- 
ant thing so well that I should think these parents would 
feel honored because their children are going to be allowed 
to stay longer in school." 

There is vast difference in the power of individuals to 
write these personal notes so that they will bring results; 
to some it comes naturally, as do gracious speech and 
manners. The ability to write letters of this sort should 
be cultivated, for it can be made a great source of help 
in strengthening the bond between home and school. 

In these days a large number of homes can be reached 
by telephone and frequent use of this means of communica- 
tion can be made of great value. If a girl 
or boy is absent, telephone a friendly inquiry Tei%°hone 
as soon as possible. The assumption is that the 
absence is because of illness or some other serious cause. If 
such is the case you will be surprised to see how deeply your 
interest will be appreciated. If, as sometimes happens, the 
absence is without knowledge or consent, then you and the 
home are at once ready to deal with the matter in harmony. 

If a telephone is not a part of the school equipment, then 
the same result can be obtained through writing, although 
the process is slower. In any event, the quicker you can 
get into communication with the parent the better. 

Now and then a word of dissatisfaction is brought about 



72 THE TEACHER 

by unfavorable formal reports. Do not take oifense at this 
and withdraw upon your wounded dignity: learn rather 

to consider this an opportunity and make the 
[rft^rviews niost of it. Such a murmur is an opening for 

a personal interview with the parent. It may 
be necessary to make some exertion to bring this about, 
but make it : do not cease your efforts until you come face 
to face with the disaffected. That accomplished, your 
attitude should always be that of the individual who is 
seeking only the best interests of the child. The parent 
must first be made to feel the honesty of the teacher's 
position ; too often he has no faith in that at the beginning 
of the interview. 

If the parent is angry, impassioned, and rude, the de- 
mand upon you for quiet courtesy is the more impera- 
tive. Strident tones are soon modified by quiet answering 
ones. Anger and irritation will yield to evident kindly 
feeling. Then you have made headway and are ready 
to discuss matters. 

In this discussion never compromise truth. Tell it fear- 
lessly even though you know it will not please the ear of 
your listener. Often you will have to state facts of which 
father or mother has no knowledge, for the teacher fre- 
quently sees manners of the child which are not revealed 
at home. On the other hand, the parent will tell you things 
about the child which will throw an entirely new light upon 
his attitude at school. Perhaps you will begin the interview 
with a complete justification of your treatment of the 
pupil and of what the school is doing for him. It will 
often happen that a frank talk will end with some modifica- 
tion of this position. The person who is big enough to 
take the view-point of the other will usually, in an unim- 



RELATION TO PARENTS 73 

passioned survey of his own action, find some things to 
criticize. It is always good to see ourselves as others see 
us, and the parent who comes to us in anger often gives 
us a pretty clear glimpse of ourselves in the mirror held 
before us. 

An interview with a parent, if rightly conducted, ought 
to leave that parent your friend, convinced of your inten- 
tion of doing for the child the best in your power. It 
should send him away with a decided purpose to assist you 
in every possible way. 

On your part you will be conscious of added interest m 
that particular child, for you will know him better; 3^ou 
will have for him increased patience and fuller understand- 
ing. The mistakes previously made in dealing with him 
will be corrected in the light of this new knowledge. 

The habit on the part of parents of visiting schools is 
becoming less and less common. It is rare for father or 
mother to come to the building with the avowed 
intention of spending time enough to visit pa^rentr^'" 
classes or to get any intelligent idea of what 
the school is really accomplishing. Parents frequently claim 
that this is the fault of the schools and the teachers; that 
they have been made to feel that their presence interferes 
with the routine of the work and that teachers are annoyed 
by such interruptions. 

How much of this is true.? If any, is the condition right.'* 

School is a busy place and teachers have little time to 
devote to entertaining visitors, but that is not what the 
visitor wants. His desire is to see the school running natu- 
rally, just as though no one from the outside were there. 

Make a visiting parent sure that he is welcome; give 
him a seat that commands a good view of the room; go 



74 THE TEACHER 

about your business without apology, and then forget 
the visitor. The occasions will be rare when the guest 
will not be interested and far outstay the time planned. 

A mother once called at the door of a certain high school 
to leave a message for her son. The teacher in charge 
invited her to come in. 

"Do you really want me.'"' asked the lady, in surprise. 

"Certainly I do. Why shouldn't I.?" 

"Why, I always thought that teachers never wanted vis- 
itors in the high school. I used to go when my boy was 
in the grades, but I felt that now I should be in the way." 

Assured of her welcome, she ventured in with the inten- 
tion of remaining a few minutes. She was given a seat 
and the teacher went about her work, now and then explain- 
ing some phase of it or chatting with her guest as oppor- 
tunity offered. The few minutes extended to an hour and 
w^hen time for the noon recess came, the mother was still 
there. She accepted the invitation to stay to the luncheon 
served to the school, expressing herself as glad to see 
another feature of the daily routine. She went back with 
the teacher and remained through the entire afternoon 
session. 

"I suppose," said the lady at its close, "there is nothing 
left for me to do now but go home." 

"Yes," said the teacher smiling, "you can go with me 
to the field and watch the baseball game. We have an 
important one this afternoon." 

They went, and when the mother left for home at six 
o'clock it was with a very different idea of both school 
and teacher. 

There are numberless parents who would find equal 
pleasure in the same opportunity, but they do not know 
how to open it for themselves. It must be true that, in 



RELATION TO PARENTS 75 

some strange waj, the barriers have been put up against 
visitors. At least it is true that parents in general feel 
that they are not welcome. 

The teacher who succeeds in breaking down this idea and 
convinces the pubhc that the schools are theirs and at all 
times open to them, has greatly strengthened both her posi- 
tion and her influence in the community. 

The reflex influence upon the teacher of such visits as 

the one mentioned above is also of great value. Left alone 

any school, any teacher, no matter how good, Effect of 

inevitably settles into a routine and loses sensi- X''^'*^ .u 

... upon the 

tiveness to existmg conditions. Many things """eacher 

pass unnoticed and the school insensibly sinks below its best. 

What teacher ever had a chance visitor that she failed 
to discover something that she wished was diff'erent.? It 
may be a very httle thing, so trivial as to escape the notice 
of anyone else, or it may be really of vital importance, a 
fault that has unconsciously crept into the day, but viewed 
in the presence of another person, it becomes clearly evident 
and cries aloud for correction. That correction soon fol- 
lows and the visitor, merely by his presence, has become an 
unconscious benefactor, a reformer. 

There are certain public opportunities for bringing 
schools and parents together. All these should be studied 
and made to yield good results in the direction 
of closer personal relations. OppoVtu- 

The opening of a new building is one such 
opportunity. It can be made a sort of house-warming with 
a strong personal element infused into it. 

This was successfully done by a high school a few years 
ago. The building was decorated with flowers and bril- 
liantly lighted. A route was carefully planned for which 
the older boys acted as guides. These did not move about, 



76 THE TEACHER 

but had fixed positions and passed the crowd on from one 
to the next. At each door a guide was stationed who gave 
the name of the teacher occupying the room and the subject 
taught. 

Each teacher was in his or her room to receive the guests 
and to talk personally with them. Numberless parents saw, 
for the first time, teachers whose names had been familiar 
for months, and teachers met parents in a way to make both 
feel that a foundation had been laid upon which future help- 
fulness could be built. 

Manual training has come into its own in many places. 
Exhibitions of this work follow naturally and the parents 
come eagerly to inspect the concrete results. Most of these 
parents may be strangers to the teachers, but isolate any 
particular table, chair, or bookcase, and the man and woman 
viewing it with expressions of satisfied admiration are pretty 
sure to be the father and mother of the child who made it. 
A little quiet watching will verify this intimation, after 
which the teacher should make himself known and then lead 
the conversation where he will. 

Some schools find it valuable to institute parents' days ; 
now and then to have a special programme to which the 
parents are invited informally. In fact, any expedient that 
is effective in bringing home and school into close and 
harmonious contact, should be used to the fullest extent. 

Each locality, each community, will offer different oppor- 
tunities which the alert, tactful teacher will be able to turn 
to good account. 

The ability to do this is another measure of the individual. 



CHAPTER VII 
PERSONALITY AND POISE 

The greatest need of the schools today is more teachers 
of right personaHty. You may plan courses of study, you 
may demand college degrees or insist upon special work in 
pedagogy, you may set up all kinds of artificial standards, 
yet, in the end, if this element of right personality is lack- 
ing, there is little left. It is the subtlest of subtle qualities. 
It defies definition ; it eludes description and yet the power 
of it is greater than that of any or all other powers that 
enter into human activities. From experience all appreciate 
what this personality means; all recognize its force when 
coming in contact with it. 

The personality of one individual may be charming 
and attractive; that of another unattractive, 
repellent, or ineffective — neutral. PeI^ona°ity 

Effectiveness in school work is in direct 
ratio to the power and charm of the teacher, — to the beauty 
and force of personality. 

Several years ago the "Inlander," a paper published by 
students of the University of Michigan, sent out a circular 
letter to a number of its graduates who had attained more 
or less prominence. Among other things, the letter asked 
these graduates what had counted for the most in its 
influence upon their college careers. 

A man who has won an enviable name for himself in lit- 
erature wrote one thing worth quoting: 

"What did I study in college? I can't remember. But 

77 



78 THE TEACHER 

I remember the men under whom I worked. The subjects 
were evanescent, unimportant ; the influence of the men 
lasting." 

The personahtv of no two persons can ever be the same. 
Two people may be the antipodes in characteristics and 
Difference in J^^ ^^^^ individuality of each be pleasing and 
Pel-son ai it ies (effective. One star differs from another star 
in glory, although each may shine with marked 
brilliancy in its own constellation. 

A pleasing personality reveals itself in certain externals. 
All that has been said of dress and of the care of the person, 
has an important bearing here. First impres- 
Externais sions come necessarily from these same exter- 
nals. The original picture of a stranger 
persists in the mind and from that picture an estimate of 
the individual is made. There is good reason for this, too, 
for these things are exponents of the personality that lies 
behind them. 

A slovenly, unkempt appearance does not go with the 
nature born to be a leader. Genius may burn in the brain 
beneath tumbled hair, inspiration throb in the heart that 
beats under an untidy gown, shoes run down at the heel 
may climb poetic heights, but personal carelessness cannot 
belong to the individual who expects to exert an all-around 
strong, uplifting influence upon human beings in the mass. 
The ego, the person that you really are, is bound to 
shine through and cast its reflections upon your surround- 
ings. 
mg's^°""^' '^^^ very school-room shows the eff'ect of the 

individual; the walls, the sunshine, take on a 
diff^erent quality and the faces of the children in a room 
dominated by the right personality turn constantly to the 



PERSONALITY AND POISE 79 

light, which is the teacher, just as the sunflowers follow the 
sun. Such a room we say has an atmosphere. 

The word atmosphere, in this sense, is as difficult of defi- 
nition as personalit3\ It is a quality which we feel rather 
than recognize intellectually. It is the quality that per- 
vades the habitation of some friend, to which you love to 
go at all times. There you are made to feel at home, 
there 3^ou are left alone to the resting of mind and body. 
Here there is always order and peace, — a charming 
atmosphere. 

There are other homes which carry no such appeal, which 
one enters with a feeling of restraint and in which the 
real individual never quite comes honestly to the surface. 

Merely putting certain pictures upon the wall, adding 
plants, flowers, or other ornaments, will not, in itself, put 
into any room tlie desired atmosphere. Many a house fur- 
nished by a professional is in perfect taste and yet utterly 
devoid of the home feeling, of atmosphere. The strong 
personality must and does make itself felt upon inanimate 
things regardless of their intrinsic value. In fact, per- 
sonality has no commerce and no need of commerce with 
values as estimated by the average cost price. 

"That house is a horror," said one woman to another as 
they left a certain so-called home. 

"But," was the answer of the second woman, "those people 
have very little money to spend and they can't aff"ord 
expensive things." 

"That isn't what I mean at all," came the quick retort. 
"One might put you into a bare room with only a table 
and two wooden chairs for furniture, and in half an hour 
the place would have an air." 

A certain amount of what is in one is bound to appear 



80 THE TEACHER 

in external surroundings ; more may appear if the teacher 
is entirely natural. There are countless touches that will 
illuminate the too frequent barrenness of daily school lifa 
if the teacher will let herself shine out. 

A certain school-room was not especially well situated for 

pleasant outlook. The teacher to whose lot this room 

fell received much sympathy from the others 

Sch1)oi-Room bccause she had to take such a dismal location; 

but within a few weeks the room was voted 

by all to be the most attractive in the school. 

The building was set against a hill, so the whole long 
east side of the room was partly below ground, with win- 
dows at least four feet from the floor. The wide ledge 
made a fine place for ferns and a few plants that needed 
little strong light, while gold fish shimmered and shone 
and swam in a bowl of water crystal clear. In the south 
windows geraniums flaunted their scarlet blossoms. Corner 
book-shelves, with well-dusted books evenly placed, with 
their various-hued bindings, gave a bit of color like that 
of an oriental rug. A bust and a running vine on top of 
the shelves caught the eye pleasantly. At the side of the 
book-shelves was a wide window-seat and the teacher had 
dared to pile this full of bright red pillows. This was an 
unconventional thing to do, and, in the minds of some, a 
tempting of Providence, but the pillows remained there 
unmolested, and the corner became a favorite spot for close 
personal consultation with the teacher. 

The pictures, few in number, were all good ones, show- 
ing in full eff'ect against the yellow wall. There were cut 
flowers in abundance, varying with the season. 

"Why do you always have so many flowers.?" was the 
question of another teacher. 



PERSONALITY AND POISE 81 

It took her a few minutes to think out the reason, and 
even then she was not quite sure. 

"I wonder if it isn't because I really am fond of flow- 
ers, and let the boys and girls know that I am. When- 
ever they bring me anything, I take care of it, and put 
even a single flower into water immediately and never 
allow a bunch to wither disregarded on my desk." 

She had touched the secret. She cared for flowers, and 
showed that she did, and the children found great pleasure 
in keeping her well supplied. She had revealed to them 
this attractive side of her personality. 

It never does any harm to let individual tastes appear 
in the school-room. So far as possible, one should be 
the same person there as elsewhere. 

Another teacher was so completely herself in the school- 
room that she met her school as she would meet an indi- 
vidual. If something interesting came under 
her observation, she spoke of it as she would Things 
to a friend, informally and naturally. Some- 
times she broke the routine by reading a paragraph or a 
page from something that she cared about. She did not 
do this as a formal matter, but would frequently say, in a 
conversational tone, without rising from her chair, "Here is 
something you will like to know^ about." They became so 
used to these rather unusual ways that this teacher could do 
almost anything and not arouse surprise. 

Into the school-room there wandered one day a valuable 
hunting dog. The teacher was near the door, hearing a 
recitation. She knew herself and her school, and judged 
the nature of the dog correctly, so she did not drive the 
animal out, but went on with the business in hand. The 
dog walked about her in a friendly way, evidently waiting 



82 THE TEACHER 

for the encouraging pat upon the head which he received. 
Content with that, he lay down quietly at her feet and slept 
through the rest of the period. 

It developed later that the dog belonged to one of the 
boys in the class, who enjoyed the visit of his canine friend 
and appreciated the treatment which he received. The 
next morning, a pleasant episode illustrated the friendly 
relation existing between teacher and pupil. She found 
upon her desk a pair of wild ducks, with the following 
note: 

"My dog told me last night that he called at school 
today and had a very nice visit. He said you were so 
good to him that he thinks you ought to have some of 
the ducks which we got on our hunting trip Saturday." 

The note was signed by the dog's master. 

The teacher who could call forth such a half-playful 
and at the same time so dignified an attitude has evinced 
the power of a worthy personality capable of human rela- 
tions even in the school-room. 

Years ago, in another school, a dog was in daily attend- 
ance. His owner was obliged to earn his own living, which 
he did in the capacity of newsboy. The early morning 
found him at the hotel waiting for the Chicago papers, 
and by four o'clock he was started on his route, with his 
dog close at heel. 

If by chance they were separated when the school bell 
rang, the dog responded to his summons and the school 
paid no more attention to his entrance than to that of one 
of the pupils. 

There come to mind other schools with other dogs who 
played their part in regular recitations, allied themselves 
with all the regular athletic activities, proving themselves 
good comrades and playfellows. In another study-room 



PERSONALITY AND POISE 83 

hung a canary, trilling its song at will. And so the story 
might go on. 

If the horned toads, chameleons, white rats, tame 
squirrels, pet rabbits, and other strange creatures of the 
woods that find their way into various school-rooms, should 
be assembled, the menagerie would be an interesting one; 
if the teachers of those same schools could be brought 
together, they would prove to be women of strong and 
attractive personalities. The weak individual is never equal 
to the unusual condition, be it so slight a deviation from 
the conventional as the occasional wandering into the room 
of a stray dog. 

A class will work hard for one teacher and be merely 
time-servers or worse for another. They ma}^ be angels 
of light in one room and be transformed into 
imps of darkness the moment they pass under {S^worlf 
the control of another individual. The second 
one will be sure to charge all misdeeds and all disorder to 
the natural depravity of the children, but the cases are 
few and far between where the blame can honestly be laid 
at the door of anyone but the teacher. Often the fault 
may not be anything that she does, but all in the way 
she does it, that way being the involuntary expression of 
her personality. 

There is a power in personality strengthened by certain 

other qualities that enables a person to do almost anything 

with school or individuals. 

. . Dominance 

A teacher m charge of an assembly-room m of Right 

'^ . '^ ^ Personality 

a large high school had attained such influence. 

No matter if her punishments or her commands seemed 

illogical or unnecessary, such was the confidence of the 

pupils in her attitude toward them that although they 

might often be surprised, they were never stirred to anger 



84 THE TEACHER 

or opposition, for they were sure there was somewhere a 
good reason for her action even if it were not evident to 
them. 

One day a girl flounced into the room in a state of anger, 
scolding audibly to those walking near her. 

"Nora, come to me," the teacher called. "Why are you 
so angry?" 

"Miss M was awfully mean to me," said the girl; 

and then she repeated the offending words of the teacher, 
who had a reputation for showing needless and unreasonable 
irritation. 

"Why, Nora !" exclaimed the teacher, "I have said much 
severer things to you." 

"I know it," replied the girl. "You might call me a fool 
and I shouldn't get angry, for I should know that you 
probably knew what you were talking about." 

The strength of personality, like other forces, is esti- 
mated by the distance over which it is powerfully operative. 
It is comparatively easy to make one's self felt when in the 
immediate presence of those whom one desires to bring to 
a certain course of action, but to do this without the aid of 
personal contact is more difficult. 

This power of personality, if it works out to the good 
of the school and of the individuals composing it, can be 
made effective at long range. The first step toward this 
result is to create in the pupils perfect confidence in the 
reasonableness of the teacher's request, a sort of "the king 
can do no wrong" idea. This accomplished, the rest follows 
naturally. 

There were two hundred in a high school assembly-room. 
Just as they were coming together at noon, a church across 
the way took fire and it seemed wise not to allow the pupils 
to enter their own building. It was a big fire, lasting a 



PERSONALITY AND POISE 85 

long time, and the logical conclusion was that the school 
would not assemble that afternoon. 

Toward the end of the session time, however, the danger 
was over and one teacher thought she would put to the 
test the range of her influence. The pupils were scattered 
over several blocks. To those nearest the building she 
said that they might come to the study-room for a few 
minutes, and she asked these to spread the message. At the 
end of fifteen minutes the entire roomful of two hundred, 
with the exception of two girls, who had been seen running 
home as fast as their feet could carry them, were in their 
seats. She had merely sent out a personal request, but, as 
the principal remarked in speaking of it, "Hers was a name 
to conjure with." 

Everyone cannot bring a whole school back from a fire; 
everyone should not attempt such things. 

Find the limits of your own personality and then let all 
of it vibrate through your school-room. Certain things 
are possible to a teacher of one personality 

that should never be attempted by a different Your own 

, , Personality 

one. The stronger the nature the less conven- 
tional ma}^ be the attitude. Only large natures can do 
things in a big way, and woe betide the smaller individual 
who attempts to follow through imitation only, where the 
personality of a greater nature leads. The mighty ship 
can sail the wide ocean, but the safety of the tiny craft is 
in hugging the shore line. 

A certain high school had a principal of most unusual 
personality. It would be difficult to describe him to a 
stranger. He was a powerful teacher, always inspiring, but 
intolerant of neglect of work. He stood before that school 
in an attitude of supreme manliness that settled all question 
of discipline easily — these were always for other teachers, 



86 THE TEACHER 

for he never had any of his own — and exacted from girls 
and boys the best there was in them. He could give the 
severest reproof without offense and, without loss of 
authority or devotion, could do countless other things 
impossible for an3^one else. The respect and love in which 
he was held, based upon experience and traditions oft 
repeated, enabled them to understand his every word and 
deed. 

A boy named Trowbridge was a favorite with everybody, 
but he did not take kindly to study. He worked when he 
had to and had a mind capable of good things, but he had 
to be driven to them. 

The principal, in the Greek class, had showered abuse, 
satire, and encouragement upon him, without effect, but 
finally he gave a master stroke. 

A boy who was an average student was on his feet and 
questions were being fired at him with the rapidity of a 
gatling gun. 

"I don't know," the boy responded to one of them. 

"What ! don't you know that .'"' was the quick retort. 
"Why, even Trowbridge knows that!*' 

According to all known rules of pedagogy, this was 
wrong, but this man was great enough to be a law unto 
himself. Everyone in the class knew that from the top 
of the big building to the bottom there was no one more 
ready with sympathy, more just in his judgments, more 
ready to help all who needed help than this same man who 
uttered this seemingly cutting remark. Because they read 
his heart and not his words, the remark was robbed of all 
possible sting. Would that the teaching force were blessed 
with more men like him — real men and not just school 
teachers ! 



PERSONALITY AND POISE 87 

Imagine what would have happened if a man of feeble 
personality had said this thing ; imagine any other teacher 
attempting to imitate the methods of this man ! 

A strong personality of the type to exert controlling 
influence usually has, as one leading characteristic, excel- 
lent poise. The weak nature goes to pieces p^j^g ^^ 
under storm and stress, and no school can escape ||rSrfg"* °^ 
such periods. Sometimes it is the little nag- Personality 
ging, tormenting, unimportant things that come tumbling 
upon the nerves one after another that bring one to the 
snapping point. But this snapping point is what must 
be avoided. "Mistress of herself though China fall," is the 
only safe attitude of the teacher who would rise to real 
greatness. 

Does anyone for a moment think that this is easy ? Look 
at this picture ; not a teacher will fail to recognize it. 

A warm, muggy afternoon in June. No refreshing 
breeze floats through windows open wide in hope of it. 
Warm, sticky hands cling listlessly to for- 
gotten books or beat nerve-racking tattoo upon pjcuire '^"^ 
desk. Feet shuffle and scrape the floor; now 
a book falls with a crash, or an audible "Quit that !" or "Cut 
it out !" bursts from lips of boy suff^ering from tiny tor- 
ment of his neighbor. There is a frown on every brow, a 
strained note in every voice. In no place can the teacher 
detect any particular disorder, nowhere any marked out- 
break, but the restless, uneasy, noisy assembly is far removed 
from the ideal of a well-conducted school. The teacher is 
a human being, too, and aff'ected by the same conditions 
operative upon the wriggling mass before her. 

The easy way is that of irritable reproof, of impatient 
word ; the right way is that of self-restraint, of poise. This 



88 THE TEACHER 

requires clear vision and great self-mastery. Irritability on 
the part of the teacher will only increase the irritation of 
the children, and that is already too great. 

But to this necessary poise on the part of the teacher 
must be added a remedy. The abilitj^ to find and apply it 
is also one of the attributes of right personality 
Remedy ^^^ g^^d poise. 

The remedy should be sought in complete 
change. The schedule may direct that at this time every 
little mind be absorbed in discovering how many hours it 
will take a frog to get out of a well twenty-seven feet deep, 
if each hour he climb three feet and drop back two feet. 
Of course the solution of this particular problem is vital, 
but if the conditions are such that the frog will not even 
jump, what is the use of peering listlessly into the well.'^ 

Probably physical activity is necessary. Try taking off 
all restraint for a few minutes. If you are fortunate enough 
to be in a country school and not a part of a vast system, 
turn the children out of doors even if it isn't time for 
recess. Give them perfect freedom to run and yell. Let 
the boys tumble each other around like so many puppies. 
The psychological effect of the proceeding may not be 
clear to you, but it is there and will show results when you 
get back into the school-room. 

You might also try holding the rest of the school ses- 
sion out of doors if you have the right hold upon the 
pupils and do not need the restraining help of four walls. 

If town or city deprive you of this perfect freedom, there 
are still great possibilities if you are keen to catch them. 
The fire engines may go past. I have known them to just 
when they were needed. What a blessing! The minute 
or two at the windows — you haven't the right grip on your 
school if you dare not let them go — will quicken circulation 



PERSONALITY AND POISE 89 

and return the children to their seats with deeper drawn 
breath and some of the cobwebs brushed from the brain. 

It was springtime and the weather yet cool, but there 
was no life in the air because the ventilation was insufficient. 
The teacher called one of the older boys and gave him 
directions. Then she said to the school, "We are going to 
play 'Follow the Leader,' with John for leader. Go on 
tip-toe through the hall and keep so still that no one will 
know what we are doing." 

John led the school slowly through the hall and out the 
nearest way to the big yard. There he fell into a brisk 
trot which he kept up all around the outside of the yard. 
The school followed and slipped back into their seats with 
alertness showing in every face. While they were gone, 
every window had been thrown open and the air in the room 
was made fresh and vital. 

Sometimes a change of mental activity may be sufficient. 
Try geography instead of frogs ; tell a story or read one. 
As in all other school relations, the individual teacher must 
find the proper remedy in each individual case. 

Frequently the issues are big ones and demand that the 

teacher be big enough to meet them. No matter what the 

provocation to the contrary, she must maintain 
r o . , . 1 1 • Meeting 

her perfect poise and rise greater than the situ- Great 
. Issues 

ation. The angry child can be met successfully 

only by one superior to anger. Whoever yields to a fit of 

temper sinks below the level of the child and loses control 

of the situation. The individual possessed of good poise 

will be equal to anything, even to open defiance of directions. 

One experience of a successful teacher comes to mind. 

The school had returned to the study-room from classes 

for dismissal at noon. There was the usual stir attendant 

upon putting away books and preparing for departure. 



90 THE TEACHER 

In one matter the teacher had always been very particular. 
Whenever she spoke immediate and absolute attention was 
expected and it was usually promptly and willingly given. 

This day, having some announcement to make, she asked 
for attention. The room was instantly quiet, but on the 
front seat, Walter was paying no attention, but was putting 
on his rubbers. 

"Walter, put down your rubbers." 

"I won't do it," and his big eyes looked as though he 
meant what he said. 

It would have been perfectly natural for the teacher to 
have stopped then and there to vindicate her authority, but 
she realized that such a course would result in a useless pub- 
lic disagreement. So, instead, she looked at him for an 
instant, turned to the school, said what she had to say, and 
dismissed them. 

Then, stepping to the door, she met Walter as he came 
out, and said, in a quiet tone, "Come. back into the room 
with me." There was nothing in her manner or voice to 
arouse his antagonism and, not quite understanding why 
she was not angry with him, he looked at her curiously, but 
obeyed. 

"Walter," she said, "you evidently did not understand 
the spirit in which I spoke to you. I did not intend to com- 
mand arbitrarily, although my words may have sounded so. 
T' had asked for attention and when you disregarded the 
request, I had no time to wait, so I spoke quickly to secure 
your attention." 

"I hadn't heard what you said before." 

"Then you thought I was just trying to show my 
authority ?" 

"Yes, and I didn't propose to be bossed," he answered, 



PERSONALITY AND POISE 91 

and something of the same defiant attitude appeared in 
voice and set of shoulders. 

In the talk that followed the teacher learned much about 
the boy. He had fought every inch of his way in life 
against heavy odds. He had worked to clothe himself ever 
since he was a little fellow, and since he had been in the 
high school he had paid his board at home. He had begun 
by selling papers on the street, then he had carried a regu- 
lar route, and eventuall}^ had developed a business of his 
own at a station where the sale of papers was large. 

The training had made him strong and independent, but 
it had also made him suspicious. He felt that the world 
was against him and that he must fight for everything that 
he had. He looked upon every stranger as his natural 
enemy, and too many had proven themselves such. This 
teacher was almost a stranger to him, for he was one of a 
large class that had only recently been assigned to her 
room. He was not in any of her classes and so opportuni- 
ties for knowing him had not come readily to her. But 
after this she took pains to know him well and she soon felt 
grateful for the mastery of self that had made her his 
friend instead of his enemy. It taught her for all time 
that few things are of more value to a teacher than perfect 
poise. 

There is a vast difference between the tremendous p^ 
of high and noble personality and the effect of mere per^ 
sonal influence. The former is life-giving, 
strength-producing, inspiring ; the latter is f re- vai'ue^*^ 
quently enervating, deadening. 

There are occasions when it is justifiable and desirable to 
bring a pupil to a definite course of action through the 
power of a dominating personal influence. To depend 



92 THE TEACHER 

upon this power too much is not only fatal to one's final 
success but highly injurious to those upon whom it is 
exerted. 

A strong and right personality reaches beyond today and 
becomes effective for all days. 

To be sure, it weaves itself in and out and through all 
the little daily influences of school life. It brings peace and 
comfort and joy to each hour; it smoothes many a trouble, 
avoids hundreds of needless unpleasant issues, it reaches with 
its marvelous subtle influence each and every boy and girl 
and makes a school better every day. 

But the true, strong personality does more than this. 
Its influence is not evanescent, but is for all time. To make 
the routine of school run without friction and with delight 
is not a small matter, but how vastly greater is it to reach 
down to the bigger, better things that lie deep in every 
human soul! 

Here is the ultimate value of a right personality : To be 
able, through the natural school relations, to touch the very 
roots of these young natures, to vivify and start to upward 
growth the best that lies dormant there. Often great 
possibilities exist in a child all unsuspected; but under the 
influence of an inspiring personality, they will stir to life; 
will blossom, and in later years bear fruit. 

An inspiring teacher becomes a living model, the more 
powerful the less she knows that she is one. She is so busy 
living with her children truly, justly, sympathetically, 
humanly, that self-consciousness will be non-existent. 

This was the force which the university graduate felt 
when he could not recall his studies, but remembered the 
men. It is this force which swings back into our memories 
certain teachers whom we know now were strong influences 
in making us what we are today. Often we can recall the 



PERSONALITY AND POISE 93 

picture when that power first made itself felt in the molding 
of our ambitions, principles, and character. 

Various forms of discipline can establish rules and keep, 
a school from breaking them. The teacher of uplifting per- 
sonality will touch the motive springs of action in such a 
way as to make rules largely unnecessary. She will develop 
in the pupils self-control, integrity, consideration for others, 
gentleness, charity, a spirit of courtesy, of helpfulness. 

These are qualities that will persist far beyond the doors 
of any school-house. They are permanent things of life 
and they are, after all, the only things that are really worth 
while. 

"What matter if we seek with pain 
The garden of the gods in vain 
If, lured thereby, we climb to greet 
Some wayside blossom, Eden sweet?" 

So quoted a grown woman to her onetime teacher. 

"Do you remember teaching me that when I was a young 
girl.?" 

"No," said the teacher. "I remember the lines as Long- 
fellow's, but I don't remember ever teaching them to you." 

"But you did, and we talked a lot about what they meant. 
I have never forgotten the lines nor what you said about 
them. Even if we never attain what we strive for, if the 
object is worthy, the strife pays. You insisted that the 
goal be nothing lower than the garden of the gods if we 
expected to greet the wayside flowers." 

Other teachers might have directed the child to memorize 
these lines, but the personality of this woman was broad 
enough to make an impression for life. 

The man or woman possessed of the right personality 
must have more than intellectual attainments, more than an 



94 THE TEACHER 

interest in teaching history or arithmetic or geography, 
must be intensely human, must keep ever the spirit of 
youth though locks be gray, must have quick 
Requisites sympathy both with jo}^ and sorrow, and above 
all must believe in young people. That does 
not mean a blind, maudlin, sentimental faith — nothing 
could be worse — but a faith that sees both good and bad, 
tells the truth about it and, while being as severe as need 
be, shows back of all a genuine human love. 

Such a teacher must be master of himself, of the situa- 
tion, of the individual; must be patient, alert, quick of 
judgment, interested, honest, happy, and untiring in service. 

The demand is heavy, but the reward is great. 



CHAPTER VIII 
TACT 

Tact has been defined as "A quick or intuitive apprecia- 
tion of what is fit, proper, or right; fine or ready mental 
discernment shown in saying or doing the proper thing or 
especially in avoiding what would offend or disturb; skill 
or facility in dealing with men or emergencies." There are 
many phases to this definition, all of which have strong prac- 
tical bearing when applied to the working philosophy of a 
teacher. 

Indians, barbarians, and all uncivilized nations or 
peoples of whatever age or place, know but one way of 
settling all questions, and that is the way of battle, a fight 
to the finish in which the mastery always goes 
to the strongest and the day is won by might, comparisons 
not right. 

Civilization has found a better way, though the world 
has not advanced to the point where this better way can 
always be made successful. The barbaric is not completely 
quelled and sometimes the mighty differences of nations 
must be settled through war. But these periods are grow- 
ing farther and farther apart and come only when all other 
methods fail. 

An important part in the organization of every govern- 
ment is its diplomatic service. For this service, men are 
selected of wide experience, of clear insight, men who are 
clever, sympathetic, quick readers of human nature, pos- 

95 



96 THE TEACHER 

sessed of ability to consider any question from the view- 
point of the opposing interest, and endowed with a pecuhar 
power to bring a happy issue out of all trouble, which, of 
course, means usually settling the issue according to their 
own wishes. 

The old-time school was a tyrannical institution. The 
master stood in a position of unquestioned authority. He 
The Old ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^' "Go," and he usually went. 

the^Better ^^ ^^^ g^i^g were at all delayed, it was hastened 
^^y by rod or ruler. The view-point of the young 

person was rarely considered, and if he dared state or defend 
it, the case was counted one of insubordination and treated 
accordingly. The teacher's authority was absolute, his 
power supreme, and the young nature could only cower in 
unwilling submission. 

The progress of education has modified this. Serious stu- 
dents of youth and its needs have solved satisfactorily many 
troublesome problems. 

Yet, after all that has been done, the school still remains 
an absolute monarchy. The authority of the teacher is 
supreme, his will is law, and when there is an issue, the judg- 
ment, or at the least the way, of the teacher prevails. It 
may be necessary that this should continue to be more or 
less true ; it doubtless is best that it should be, but the 
attendant evils must be counteracted. 

The old way is the way of the hunter who goes to the 
forest to slay his game because he has the power, the way 
of the barbarian who knows no argument but that of battle, 
the way of the teacher who drives his school according to 
his own arbitrary will, regardless of what may die within 
the boy or girl during the process. 

The better way is that of the diplomat who handles great 
crises without bloodshed or international warfare. 



TACT 97 

Under the present organization of schools, there still 
remains tremendous opportunity to do violence to the young 
people who pass some of the best years of their lives in the 
school-room. One who has been long in the work is fre- 
quently startled at the wreckage strewn along the shore ; 
is made to wonder if something is not radically wrong in 
the theory upon which we are working. 

But that is another question ; at present our duty is 
plain to do the best that can be done under existing circum- 
stances. Now, as always, the burden of responsibility for 
wise handling of the young people rests largely, if not 
entirely, upon the individual teacher. But in school-rooms 
all over the land, teachers are meeting the problem of their 
relations with young people and are solving them wisely, 
are guiding the youth in more directions than are marked 
out by courses in algebra, history, language, or science. 
They are encountering each day situations which hold pos- 
sibilities of unpleasant issues, and yet these issues are 
avoided, not by subterfuge, but by knowing all about the 
individual, just as the diplomat knows his problems and 
settles them without war and for the best good of all. 

This ability can be summed up in the one word, tact. He 
who possesses it will succeed ; he w^ho lacks it will fail. 

The foundation principle of tact is kindness, and the man 
or woman who is not possessed of a kindly, sympathetic 
regard for human beings, of a respect for the 
feelings of others and a desire to save them all Kindness 
possible pain, lacks tact. 

A close sympathy with human life and its varying expe- 
riences lies at the foundation of a tactful 
nature. This implies an appreciation of the Sympathy 
weaknesses of those with whom we are dealing;. 
The right to condemn the failings of a.dults may occasion- 



98 THE TEACHER 

ally exist, although even there it is well to keep in mind 
the caution to dwellers in glass houses. 

With children, however, there must never be forgetful- 
ness of the fact that they are children and in the formative 
growing stage. They are not responsible for their weak- 
nesses and nothing is gained by dragging faults baldly and 
cruelly into prominence. Be as clear-visioned as possible 
and recognize every weakness; then, with tender, tactful 
touch, strengthen and sustain. 

Youth is full of hope. Plans for the future and expecta- 
tion of doing great things some day live in every young 
brain. These will not all come to full fruition ; the mature 
mind knows that, and yet the tactful person will not dis- 
courage any uplifting ambitions. Some of them may work 
out even beyond expectation, and no one can tell which ones. 
At any rate, striving brings its own reward. 

Next in importance is quick, accurate judgment. No one 
can possess this quality w^ho is not keenly sensitive to all 
surroundings. It demands an ability to see 
Judgment without conscious effort, and often without 
seeming to see, everything that passes within 
the range of vision. Much of this is unimportant at the 
time, but the mind that is thus sensitive to impressions is 
storing up a fund of data which is very likely to be brought 
into use later. If this sense reserve is tumbled haphazard 
into the mind, it will never be of very great value. There 
is a type of mind that makes classification of impressions, 
and the result of all quick observations falls into the proper 
pigeon-hole of the mind, there to await demand. Ever^^one 
should cultivate this habit. 

The old saying, "A good teacher must have one blind 
eye," is pertinent to this discussion. Experience proves the 
wisdom of the adage, but it takes the young teacher a little 



TACT 99 

time to learn it. Her extreme anxiety to make everything 
go decently renders her over-anxious, and she feels it incum- 
bent upon her to watch every turn and motion of every 
child. She anticipates trouble, puts herself in 
an attitude of expecting it, and then she is JJ^ ^""^ 
rarely disappointed. 

The tactful teacher rarely brings things to an issue. 
There is nothing that will bring about this result sooner 
than a dictatorial, opinionated manner. 

The young teacher is almost certain to go f^g^'e^ ^" 
upon the rocks occasionally. She is not yet 
trained to foresee difficulties and often is face to face with 
direct opposition before she reahzes the danger. This 
realization comes through experience, and when that expe- 
rience carries with it the right training, the occasions 
are very rare where teacher and pupil come into direct 
opposition. 

Three things must enter into the attitude of a teacher to 
make this condition possible: a strong bridle upon the 
tongue, which holds unsaid the words that would unneces- 
sarily offend the child; patience to wait until all the evi- 
dence is in before passing judgment; and, above all, a 
deep-rooted tenderness toward every offender. 

The sensitive teacher will be conscious of the greater 
sensitiveness of her children. Their own wrongdoings cut 
deep into their little souls and they know far 
more about their own offenses than any older fiveness 
person can guess. These offenses cannot often 
be allowed to pass unnoticed, but the tactful teacher will 
have sense not to touch the raw, sensitive spots too harshly. 
Here is where the trained judgment comes into .play. 
When the wrong is fresh in the mind of both teacher and 
pupil, that is usually a pretty good time to avoid extensive 



100 THE TEACHER 

discussion of it. The vision of both is likely to be distorted 
and the tiny molehill that ought to vanish in the day may 
be piled mountain high to cast its shadow across the weeks 
to come. 

The word spoken is gone forever ; the tethered word can 
be let loose at an}^ time. 

Tact enables its possessor to put himself in the position 
of the other person and to see things through his eyes. 
Put Yourself '^^^ ^'^^^^' ^^ Surprisingly different. There is 
Other% scarcely a quality in which the majority of 

P'^^® teachers are more lacking. There is something 

in the occupation that tends to make one dogmatic and opin- 
ionated. Many teachers see things from their own stand- 
point solely, satisfied that they are right. The forty 
children are forty individuals, and will look upon life 
through their own eighty e3^es. No two points on the face 
of the earth have the same horizon line, so there are millions 
of view-points each just as true for the individual as that 
of the teacher who thinks her view is the only right one. 
Fifty art students may draw from the same model at the 
same time, no two seeing it the same, and yet the sketches 
may all be true ones. 

Your opinion, after all, is only one out of millions, and 
you have only one chance out of millions of being absolutely 
right. Teachers are very apt to forget this and hold with 
tenacity to their own narrowness and treat with disdain 
those who venture to disagree. 

In this same connection may be mentioned the air of 
finality with which teachers are apt to express their views. 
They rarely offer them as a matter of opinion, 
Filfaitty °^ ^^^ frequently "speak as one having authority" 
on all subjects. This is a part of the school- 
teacher mannerisms that we all deplore. 



TACT 101 

The manner is gained, of course, in the school-room, 
where the teacher's will and opinion is supreme and so rec- 
ognized, but there is no use of advertising the fact bv self- 
assertion on every possible occasion. Even in the school- 
room this manner is to be deplored. If it can be abolished 
there it will cease to be one of the marks of the profession, 
as it certainly is now. 

Many strained, uncomfortable relations between teacher 
and pupil have been overcome completely by the finding of 
some common interest. Everybody has some 
particular, all-absorbing interest. Young peo- pn°t?rests 
pie are inclined to be very secretive about these 
interests, governed as they are by a strange modesty. It 
is worth a teacher's while to search out these concerns. 

We never get very near to anyone until we find common 
standing ground. Those whose activities are entirely out- 
side our own ever remain strangers to us. The teacher 
who finds herself in this attitude toward even a small per- 
centage of her school has far to go before she has any 
right to consider herself a worthy teacher. 

One woman once won over an entire class of boys in a 
new school by revealing to them her accurate knowledge of 
football. When they found that she could really follow 
the progress of the ball, knew an off-side play, and under- 
stood the rules that governed the forward pass, their confi- 
dence in her was supreme. The team showed it by impart- 
ing to her their signals, in perfect faith that she would 
not betray the sacred trust and that she would learn them 
as the team did. It took some hard study to master their 
mysteries, for she did not have the opportunity of putting 
them into practice as the team did, but she knew that her 
business was to live up to what they expected of her, and 
that otherwise she would lose a large element of power, so 



102 THE TEACHER 

she did not shirk the hard study, and was soon able to stand 
quiz on the signals. She had many a good talk with boys 
on the team and off, beginning with football, sometimes 
ending there, but often leading to matters more vital and 
productive of great good. 

Every teacher does not care for football, neither does 
every pupil, but let the absorbing interest be what it may, 
the discovery of it will always result in good. Often this 
revelation comes naturally and the tactful teacher will know 
how to turn the knowledge to advantage. 

When a pupil is troublesome and he and the teacher seem 
instinctively to get on opposite sides of a question, the situ- 
ation may be completely changed if the teacher seeks out 
something in which the child takes particular delight. 

Some things cure themselves, and occasionally the laissez 
fa'ire method is to be commended. No one runs to the doctor 
with every slight ailment, and usually when 
Faire^^ nature is left to herself, she takes care of most 

simple troubles. The analogy holds in the 
school-room. The rule of action is easy ; the rule of "hands 
off," is harder to obey. Sow the seed, cover, watch, water, 
and protect, but do not dig down to see if it has sprouted, 
and do not constantly pull up the young plant to discover 
how deep down the root has struck. Prepare the ground 
well, sow good seed, and then have the wisdom to leave 
things alone. 

Young people have the right to make their own mis- 
takes up to a certain point. To stand quietly by and allow 
them to fall into error is an exceedingly diifi- 
ivilstakes ^^^^ thing to do. We are all too prone to act 

as special providence, to save them from suf- 
fering and turn them into "ways of pleasantness and paths 
of peace." 



TACT 103 

To the mature mind, such ways seem to lie along the 
beaten highwa}^, but youth longs for the undiscovered coun- 
tr}^, the unbroken forest, and the hilltops. It cares nothing 
for the roughness of the road, for bruises, brambles, and 
bumps, if only it may go its own unmolested way into the 
new country of the future. 

Whenever a principle is involved, then it is the duty of 
the older person to speak with force and to act with author- 
ity, if the right result cannot be gained in any other way. 
But there are a thousand and one little unimportant things 
that are better left alone even if they do not turn out as 
perfectly as a wiser head might make them. 

This was well illustrated in a meeting of a certain high 
school literary society. Several teachers were present 
and all were interested in the success of the society. A boy 
made a motion to change from the system of signing re- 
ceipts for dues to a system of tickets, and the motion met 
the approval of the society. A teacher arose, pointed out 
what he insisted were flaws in the plan, and offered such 
strong objections to its adoption as to amount almost to a 
command. An unpleasant discussion followed, ending in 
serious irritation toward the teacher and in general dis- 
comfort. No one knows to this day which was the better 
plan, and it made precious little difference. Even if the 
boy's idea was all wrong, it was the pupils' society and they 
had a right to make a mistake. If things did not come out 
well they would learn far more by experience than by fol- 
lowing meekl}^ the dictates of anyone else. The teacher's 
only wish was to help the young people, but he forgot that 
the purpose of the society was training, and that there was 
more value in making mistakes in their own way than in 
accepting anyone's judgment ready-made. The tickets 
were a matter for a day ; the training was for life. 



104 THE TEACHER 

Experience is the only school that really gives the mas- 
ter's degree. Why, then, should we not let our children 
qualify ? 

Children do a great many things unconsciously which the 
sensitive teacher often thinks are done with malice afore- 
thought. A little quiet observation will reveal the true 
situation. 

There are a thousand and one things that are slightly an- 
noying but which are ephemeral. The teacher possessing 
the keen judgment that goes with tact will learn which are 
fleeting and which carry an element of permanency. The 
former are better ignored, seen only with the blind eye; 
the others must be dealt with vigorously. The cultivating 
of this discriminating judgment is a part of the training 
in tact. 

One of the leading educators of the country is very fond 
of saying, "The smaller the person, the better his eyesight." 

The adage is well worth keeping in mind. 

Another error that young teachers are apt to fall into is 
that of thinking that every evil, every discomfort, must 
be corrected at once. The element of time 
of ^Time enters into most curative measures. The physi- 

cian administers his prescription and then 
awaits the effect. It is hard to await results, but human 
life develops slowly and all who are engaged in the culture 
of it must learn tactful patience, content if they can detect 
progress. 

Every situation so far as possible should be handled in 

such a manner as to preserve the self-respect of the pupil. 

This is a very delicate process, for children 

hUimnra°tron ^^^ Usually hypersensitive as to their own 

shortcomings, and no one can estimate the 

amount of mental suffering that they silently endure. 



TACT 105 

The torment to which a young girl was subjected at a 
certain pubHc spelHng match, well illustrates this point. 

The contest had been very carefully arranged. Every- 
thing had been done that could be done to make it perfectly 
fair. It was a match between schools, to which each had 
sent a team. The words were clearly pronounced and were 
justly judged, both in the oral and in the written tests. A 
record, as the spelling progressed, was put upon the board 
in front of the audience so that everyone knew how many 
words were missed by each person on the team. No criticism 
could be offered upon this, for while each boy or girl as 
well as the audience could see the exact count, no especial 
attention was called to the individual who had missed the 
most. The record was there and spoke for itself, but few 
connected any of it with any particular pupil. 

But when the spelling was over, each contestant was 
brought to the front of the platform, introduced by name 
and the number of words which he had missed was an- 
nounced. It was a proud moment for those who had fallen 
within the range of the average. But try to put yourself 
in the place of the girl on the losing team who had missed 
more words than anyone else, and whose failure, as the 
record still upon the board proved, had been enough to lose 
the contest for her school. Think back into your own 
childhood for some instance considered trivial by your 
elders, but which to this day grips your heart when you 
think of it. 

The agony endured those few minutes as she stood before 
the audience, will never leave that child. She was sensitive 
in the extreme and her abject failure was without doubt 
the result of timidity. In her own natural environment 
she would have spelled most of the words given out that day. 

The committee having the match in charge had thought 



106 THE TEACHER 

only of honoring the successful and of treating everybody 
just exactly alike. In their very attempt to be just to all, 
they had overlooked this situation, which caused great suf- 
fering to a sensitive nature. 

The tactful teacher will look far ahead, will watch every 
relation, every personal quality of her children, and will 
avoid to the uttermost the needless hurt of today or the 
wound whose scar may last for life. 

There is a power to guide that does not proclaim itself 
dictatorially, that reaches its results without opposing the 
will of the individual guided, without apparent 
Subtle^ management, and without the person influenced 

knowing that he is doing anything but follow- 
ing out his own plans. 

The tactful person will bring those under his control 
to his way of action so that the individual yielding will 
never suspect that any will outside his own is operative. 
This comes very near illustrating the reconciliation of pre- 
destination and free will. 

In illumination of this idea there comes to mind the 
picture of a young father and his little girl who was just 
beginning to enjoy the delights of walking alone, free from 
restraining hand. He took her to the park one afternoon. 
From the moment they entered the enclosure, the child 
thought she went her own untrammeled way, but the mind 
of the father followed every step. He did not once reach 
out his hand to touch her or pull her this way or that, 
he did not say to her, "Don't go there," or "Come this 
way," but if she headed toward danger he was between her 
and it, and just by his presence there diverted her course, 
while she thought she went of her own free will. Every step 
of her walk Mas guided by his will and she never knew it. 
This was tact. There is a deep lesson in the story. 



TACT 107 

It was during the period when the fad for outrageously 
slovenly dress struck the western colleges. Hats looked as 
though they had been filched from the rag-man, cuffs van- 
ished, and sleeves on coatless boys went well above the el- 
bows. High schools caught the contagion. In a particular 
room where the social standing of the boys was considered 
somewhat select, and where they had been trained to respect 
the amenities of life and most of its social customs, a large 
number appeared one warm summer day in imitation of 
college apparel. The teacher studied the problem for an 
instant, knowing that thej^ could not be allowed, in harmony 
with the standards to which she had always held the room, 
to sit there in that array. She was a little sensitive about 
offering a reproof to a group who ought to know as well as 
she that they were violating the proprieties. 

She took a minute to consider the situation as the school 
gathered to order. In that time she made her decision. 
Going to the board upon which she was accustomed to write 
general notices, she slowly cleared the required space, doing 
it very slowly, for she wanted to attract the attention of 
the school, without seeming to do so. Then she wrote, also 
slowly, to make sure that they should have read the full 
message by the time she had finished : 

"It does not seem to me good form for young men to 
sit in a public assembly-room with sleeves rolled to the el- 
bows. Will you please accept my judgment in the matter .P" 

She signed her initials very slowly, dated the notice, and 
then looked it over to make sure that it was all right. By 
the time she turned to face the school, every sleeve was 
buttoned about the wrist, or coats had gone on over the 
bare arms. 

This settled the matter for the season, and did it without 
discussion and without bringing into prominence individuals 



108 THE TEACHER 

who really prided themselves upon always doing the correct 
thing. By making the matter general, she had avoided 
the feeling of individual reproof. 

That "Honesty is the best policy" has been pretty gen- 
erally accepted, but there is an application of honesty that 

is not tactful. 
Hon*esty^ There is never a time when anything but the 

truth should be spoken ; a lie has no place either 
in principle or policy. No compromise with wrong, with 
dishonesty, can be recognized in the philosophy of the 
upright. 

It is equally true, however, that "the truth, especially 
the unpleasant one, should not be spoken at all times." 
The occasional withholding of an ugly truth when the pro- 
claiming of it would result in no good whatever and might 
produce positive mischief, is the part of tactful wisdom. 

The situation is well illustrated by a conversation between 
two friends upon this same subject. One was openly and 
aggressively frank. She rarely let an opportunity pass of 
telling people with whom she associated the actual truth 
about everything just as it appeared to her severe judg- 
ment. Often this was needlessly done, often dragged into 
the conversation, and resulted in unpleasant criticism of her 
friends when such criticism produced no good results. 
Through this habit she aroused much ill feeling and did not 
accomplish the reforms which she intended. 

Her friend once remonstrated with her for thus making 
needless enemies. "You are altogether too honest," was 
the final remark. 

"I'm not a bit more honest than you are," came the 
retort. "You always tell the truth, too." 

"I hope I always tell the truth, when I say anything," 



TACT 109 

was the answer, "at least I mean to ; but I don't go around 
thrusting it upon people as you do." 

Another instance is also to the point, showing how 
one may attain an exaggerated idea of what demands 
honesty makes. A young woman once went to an older 
one with this remark: "There's a woman in this town 
whom I don't like and I have to meet her and treat her 
decentl}^ I don't think it's honest to do so, and I want 
to go to her and tell her that I don't like her." 

Of course, such a feeling was absurd and the proposed 
action the purest folly. 

There are times when "silence is golden." The tactful 
person possesses that clear, quick judgment which tells 
him the difference between "a time to keep silence and a 
time to speak." 

Some people seem to be born utterly devoid of tact. 
If there is a chance to do the wrong thing they are ever 
ready to embrace it. Unfortunately many of 
these get into the ranks of teachers. Unless of'Tact*'^" 
they cultivate tact, the end will be disastrous. 
Fortunately, tact, like any other virtue, can be cultivated. 

Anything that brings the teacher into closer personal 
touch with any one pupil is to be taken advantage of. A 
note slipped quietly into the hand of boy or girl or left 
upon the desk may carry weight and lasting influence that 
can never be put into a general talk, however good. 

In a certain school it was not the custom to return exami- 
nation papers, but to give out the standing privately. One 
teacher knew the class in a peculiarly personal way, and 
was inventive. With each standing she sent a personal 
note, carefully fitted to the nature and needs of the recipi- 
ent. One of these notes contained an apt quotation which 



110 THE TEACHER 

carried back of the mere words a special message for the 
pupil; another held kindly but sharp criticism; here some 
boy read a word of needed encouragement; there a quiet 
joke with a lesson in the point of it. This took time, but 
it paid in arousing the feeling of close understanding with 
the teacher. The work after that examination was per- 
ceptibly strengthened. 

There is a decided difference between tact and policy. 
Tact is altruistic ; policy-, egoistic. The former seeks the 
good of others ; the latter, the good of one's 
PoMcy^"^ self. There is danger that the one may degen- 

erate into the other. The tactful person must 
be watchful of his own power and see that it does not 
degenerate into mere policy; just beyond the boundary 
line lies dishonesty, a dangerous neighbor. 

Let the teacher be as tactful as she may, but let her see 
to it that tact never degenerates into the intrigue of the 
politician. 



CHAPTER IX 
DISCIPLINE: A GENERAL VIEW 

The Century Dictionary defines discipline as "Mental 
and moral training, either under one's own guidance or 
under that of another ; the cultivation of the mind and 
formation of the manners ; instruction and government, 
comprehending the communication of knowledge and the 
regulation of practice." 

This definition might have been written especially for 
teachers, so perfectly does it fit the conditions. The 
schools aim to give both mental and moral training; at 
first, under the guidance of the teacher but looking always 
to the time when the children shall be able to assume the 
responsibility themselves. They try to cultivate the mind 
and form the manners ; they give instruction in a wide 
range of knowledge and furnish such government of the 
pupils as shall regulate their conduct to their final good. 

In its more limited application, however, discipline has 
come to mean to teachers that power which holds a school 
in good order to the end that the mental and moral and 
social improvement, the primary reason for the existence of 
schools, may go on uninterrupted. 

In that limited sense there is much importance, for when 
that part of discipline which relates to the government 
of the school is not right, little can be accomplished in the 
wider, fuller meaning of the word. 

Ill 



112 THE TEACHER 

The discipline, then, which relates to good government 
and order in the school becomes an important means to 
an important end ; a bond-servant to the higher 
Importance discipline. 

All the desirable qualities that any individual 
may bring into the school-room will count for little 
unless there is among them the power of keeping a school 
completely under control. Each teacher may bring to the 
work different measures by which to determine whether the 
school is moving along decently and in order, but the test 
of usefulness lies in that teacher's ability to bring her own 
particular school to her own particular standard. She must 
know that hers is the moving spirit and that in the end 
things go her way. In other words, she must be a good 
disciplinarian. 

A young woman of more than usual intellectual attain- 
ments, of pleasing personality, and with real interest in 
teaching, made a most abject failure because she could not 
control her classes. The pupils were generally w^ell dis- 
posed and made no especial trouble for other teachers, but 
the things they did not devise for this young w^oman's 
torment have yet to be invented. 

After she left the school because of her inability to 
control her classes, the principal asked one of the boy? 
who never before had given any trouble why things had 
been so bad, why they had wished so to annoy her. 

"Oh!" he replied, "we found we could, and after that, 
of course, we had to." 

In contrast in the same school was the case of a young 
man without experience. In one of ^his classes was a boy 
who had been exceptionally troublesome to everyone. The 
first day he began his usual antics. The young man waited 
until he saw that the interruption was intentional, then he 



DISCIPLINE lis 

stepped to the side of the boy and in a low tone said, "We'll 
have no more of that either now or any other day." 

The words were ordinary, but the force of the man 
shone through so that the boy at once comprehended that 
he had met his master. There was never any trouble from 
that day. 

To keep a school orderly and quiet enough to avoid all 
disturbing confusion and yet free from cramping, distort- 
ing, warping restraint demands a master mind, a master 
hand. 

No doubt the ideal disciplinarian is born, not made, and 
even the one who attains average success cannot be manu- 
factured entirely. Successful discipline requires a certain 
indefinable quality ; if a teacher lacks this, the case is hope- 
less and the sooner she seeks other fields of labor the better 
for all concerned. 

The various types of discipline divide naturally into 
two classes. There is the old-time method that makes 
of system and quiet a fetish. Under this, dis- 
cipline becomes an end, not a means. The chil- standards 
dren are but pieces of mechanism to be fitted 
into a smooth-running machine. In such a school pupils 
recite according to a set method, standing in a prescribed 
position and, when not engaged in some restrictive exer- 
cise, sit, as one superintendent expressed it, "like so many 
darning-needles stuck in a board." 

In a school where the boys and girls were separated, 
a teacher who had a room with girls was greatly dis- 
turbed all through one term because she had an odd num- 
ber in the room. This made a symmetrical arrangement 
of the seating impossible, and the one unoccupied seat was 
a constant disturbance. She moved it from front to back, 
from side to center, from right to left, but, as there was 



114 THE TEACHER 

an even number of rows in the room, there always remained 
an unbalanced condition. 

All the teachers in the building finally became inter- 
ested ; it was a puzzle, and frequent amused calls used to be 
made upon the teacher to see if she had reached a satisfac- 
tory solution. It might also be added to complete the 
picture that the order in this room was so mechanically 
correct that you could almost, when the school was at 
attention, stand in front of any given row and sight the 
straight line made by the parting of the hair on the heads 
of these poor little girls. 

Whoever has ambitions to stand at the head of any such 
school will have to look elsewhere for inspiration and 
help ; there will be none in these pages. 

On the other side, and in this direction is the trend of 
modern education, is the method that tries to give to the 
individual free and full development. To accomplish this 
end, without allowing this individualism to run riot, is the 
work of the successful teacher. 

The strain of the individual method is tremendous and, 
in our weariness, we sometimes doubt if we are on the 
right track. Would not a return to some of the stricter 
methods be really better for the schools .? 

This question once came up for honest, practical con- 
sideration before a strong body of teachers. The school 
was to move in the middle of the year into a new building. 
There had been some talk among certain teachers along 
the line of changing the policy somewhat in order to live 
up to the improvements of the new structure. 

Now^, if ever, was the time to make the change. The 
principal called a meeting for a free and frank discussion 
of the subject. He wished to get the consensus of opinion 
as to whether the old and somewhat informal methods 



DISCIPLINE 115 

should be adhered to, or whether this was the opportunity 
to change to a more systematic and semi-mihtary form. 
The one thing especially to be decided upon was the 
general order in passing of classes and in moving about 
the building. At least, should all talking in the halls be 
forbidden and the classes made to move in line and in regu- 
lar order .P Up to this time everybody had been expected 
to go to his next duty by the most direct route and 
without loitering, but it had not been adjudged a crime 
if he occasionally spoke to someone traveling his way. 

The principal asked from each teacher a perfectly frank 
opinion, reserving for himself final decision. There was 
a difference in judgment, but with a surprising leaning 
toward the more formal discipline. 

The last teacher to speak was one long in the service, 
one who knew the situation pretty thoroughly. This was 
her answer: "I think the more systematic way would pro- 
duce the better appearing school and a quieter building, 
and when the method were once established, would be like 
any other piece of machinery, excellent so long as it did 
not get out of order. There is one practical objection, 
however, to carrying it out. We should have to have a 
new principal and almost an entirely new corps of 
teachers." 

A thoughtful silence followed and then a burst of laugh- 
ter that forever disposed of the question, for that teach- 
ing force was made up of too big men and women to 
make mechanical methods possible. 

A single building will reveal a variety of standards, all 
good under the teacher in charge but differing as indi- 
vidual teachers differ. 

Side by side in the same building, equally successful 
and equally liked by the pupils, there taught for years 



116 THE TEACHER 

two teachers of markedly different personalities. One was 
even, serene, unmoved externally by any deep emotion. 

The other, full of bounding life, was often 
stYndVrds stirred emotionally. The school of the former 

was even as herself. It went on day after day 
in just the same way, always a pleasant way; the work 
was well done and the relations between her and her pupils 
landly and, on her side, helpful. 

The room of the other was not always quiet ; the teacher, 
not always even. If the mountain peaks of inspiration 
reared their heads, the school, with the teacher in the 
lead, climbed eagerly, joyously toward the sunlit vision. 
The teacher herself was a storm center of varied interests. 
Around her the pupils surged, not always in calm and 
orderly fashion, but always absorbed in the present inter- 
est. Hard and fast regulations were sometimes utterly for- 
gotten. But never for one moment did the school go beyond 
her controlling power. Instantly, when the time came, she 
could bring them back to a quiet equal to that regularly 
maintained by the other teacher, but they came back to 
repose with a new light in their eyes caught from the 
glimpse of the mountain tops. 

Both these teachers were of great value to the school; 
were, in fact, counted the best in the corps. Each in her 
own way accomplished lasting good to those who fell under 
her influence. Which was the better way? There is no 
answer to the question. Each one was always herself, deal- 
ing with her school naturally out of her own personal 
characteristics. Either one would have made a failure in 
attempting to use the methods of the other; each was big 
enough to recognize the strength of the other, and so they 
worked on side by side without jealousy and with no com- 
parison except in results, which came out about even. 



DISCIPLINE 11'^ 

To admit that one star differs from another star in 
glory is probably the only approximate answer to any 
Question involving personality, only the glory must be 

First,-emphatically first,-in the discussion of disci- 
pline should be put forth a plea, with all the tongues 

of men and of angels, for greater attention 

Obedience 
to obedience. 

Obedience, prompt, willing, and unquestion- 
ing, has gone quite out of fashion. Styles m dress, man- 
ners, and customs, after a certain interval swmg back to 
the desirable things of the past. After a not of juvenile 
independence, of exaggerated and misapplied Uieories 
touching untrammeled, unrestrained vagrancies of child 
nature, the time ought to be ripe to hark back to the day 
when young people had a wholesome respect for authority 
and knew the meaning of obedience. 

Naturally, when the pendulum swung away from dog- 
matic, unreasonable, and tyrannical authority, it swung 
iust as far the other way, and the result has been disas- 
trous The home and the school are together responsible 
for this attitude. Both have encouraged young people to 
think out and to decide all personal questions until they 
have become a law unto themselves, inclined to demand 
reasons for everything they are asked to do, and to brook 
little interference from outside authority. 

A lesson in good citizenship goes with training in obedi- 
ence. Laws exist for the good of society and a com- 
munity is right only when those laws are obeyed. Num- 
bers make laws and regulations necessary. They came 
into existence as soon as people began to gather m com- 
munities, and the larger the community, the more complex 
the life, the greater the number of laws necessary. 



118 THE TEACHER 

If a teacher and one pupil constituted a school, then the 
need for law would practically vanish; the question of 
obedience would rarely arise. Under present organization 
something in the way of rules or regulations or conven- 
tions becomes a necessity. Whether a school be large or 
small, whether it have few regulations or many its efficiency 
is largely determined by the promptness with which indi- 
viduals obey these regulations. 

More than the effect upon the school as a body is the 
effect upon individuals. No one is fitted to command, no 
one can long occupy a post of responsibility who has not 
first learned to obey. Mastery of self comes through obe- 
dience, first to outside powers and, later, to the high 
standards which strong natures set for themselves. A su-c- 
cessful life must rest upon submission to higher authority, 
reaching, in its finality, to full obedience to the Most High. 

Kipling, in the poem called "The 'Eathen," tells most 
vividly what obedience to discipline does for the raw recruit. 
When he first enlists 

" 'E don't obey no orders unless they is 'is own : 
'E keeps 'is side-arms awful: 'e leaves 'em all about, 
And then comes up the regiment an' pokes the 'eathen out." 

Under the stern tuition of the army, this good-for- 
nothing is beaten into something of worth to the English 
nation. In the grim hour of battle, he does not do all the 
things he has been taught, perhaps none of them in just 
the way he was taught, but the training holds him to 
his post. 

"Of all 'is five years' schoolin' they don't remember much 
Excep' the not retreatin' the step an' keepin' touch. 



DISCIPLINE 119 

It looks like teachin' wasted when they duck an' spread 

an' hop, 
But if 'e hadn't learned 'em the^^'d be all about the shop !" 

There was a "No Admittance" sign upon a building 
but that made no difference to the boy who always followed 
his impulses. He walked in and on the visit ruined much 
valuable frescoing. The father was sued for damages, but 
contended that the building should have been locked so that 
the boy could not have entered. 

The judge, however, decided for the builder, and ad- 
ministered this reproof to the father: "Had your son 
been taught obedience, this would not have happened. The 
fault is entirely yours." 

Many, yes, most of the things insisted upon in the school- 
room will in themselves be unimportant when school days 
are over. Most of the things that make occasion for disci- 
pline are evanescent, applying only to that limited life. 
It makes little difference in the event itself whether a boy 
or girl goes out of the north door or the south door, but 
if the comfort of the school demands the use of one door 
or the other at a certain time and directions have been 
given to that effect, then, in justice to the child, he must 
go out of that particular door. 

Obedience and the habit of obedience are far more im- 
portant than the event itself. The habits of punctuality, 
accuracy, and faithfulness to the thing expected of the 
individual, are important to that individual as long as 
he lives. 

The keen minds of children soon understand whether 
they will have to obey or whether b}^ teasing or cajoling 
they can eventually get their own way. Home conditions 
show in this particular to a certain extent, although boys 



120 THE TEACHER 

and girls who are trained to prompt obedience may leave 
that habit behind them when they come to school, if they 
have any suspicion that they will not be 
Teasing required to obey. 

No child will give up his personal desires 
without a struggle. A wise decision must have back of 
it a good reason. This must be patent to the mind of 
the one making the decision, although it is not always 
necessary to take the child into one's confidence. Such a 
decision, made after clear consideration of the conditions, 
should be firmly adhered to. Hasty decisions are different, 
and are often difficult to uphold. 

A boy one day asked a special privilege of a character 
such that under favorable conditions it might have been 
granted. The teacher did not answer at once, but let her 
mind review the conditions. Then she answered rather 
slowly: "No, I think I ought not to allow you to go. 
You have been out of school several times lately and your 
work is suffering; besides, you are getting restless because 
of these irregularities. I am sorry, but, in justice to you, 
I cannot say yes this time." 

"Oh, please !" he pleaded. "I told one of the boys who 
isn't in school that I knew you would excuse me." 

The teacher made no reply. She had given her answer. 

"Please let me go !" came in even more pathetic tones 
from the boy. 

"You heard my answer." 

"I know, but I want to go awfully and I'll make up all 
I miss. It won't make any difference just to be gone 
part of the afternoon." 

"You know my answer was not given hastily." 

But the boy continued to tease. 



I 



DISCIPLINE 121 

"Don't you know that teasing will do no good? Is that 
the way you do at home when your father or mother refuse 
you anything?" 

"Why, yes," he replied. "If they say I can't, I just 
tease and tease until I get my way." 

A direction once given should be as effective as when 
repeated. The habit of repetition is easily acquired 
and needs watching. Children require but brief expe- 
rience to learn how to gain for themselves 
a few extra seconds by resorting to this Repetition 
expedient. 

"Come here, Mary," said the teacher in a gentle tone. 

There was no sign from Mary. 

"Mary, come here!" repeated the teacher, with slightly 
added force. 

Still there was no motion toward obedience. 

"Mary, didn't you hear me tell you to come here?" 
This time there was no uncertainty of tone or manner. 

"I heard you the first time," said Mary, advancing 
slowly, "but I was waiting for you to holler." 

All children will wait for the teacher to "holler" if she 
is in the habit of allowing such delay. 

Why an adult should entertain anything like fear for 
a body of young people is not easy to explain, but most 
teachers, when they stand for the first time 
before a roomful of children, know something Fear 
of a peculiar kind of fear. 

A young woman once forcibly described the sensation 
when she said, "I feel as though I were standing at the 
crater of a volcano that might, at any moment, burst into 
violent eruption." 

One thing, however, is emphatically true, — the children 



122 THE TEACHER 

must never suspect that the shghtest quiver of fear touches 
the teacher who is to have control of them. To let this idea 
find lodgment is fatal. 

In the manner of everyone who hopes for success as a 
disciplinarian, there must be an air of confidence. This 
need not be, must not be egotistical; there is a vast differ- 
ence between self-confidence and egotism. One is desirable, 
the other to be avoided. 

There can be no uncertainty in voice or manner. If 
the first element of it creeps in, then trouble comes with it. 
Every direction must be given and every request made as 
though there could be no question of immediate compliance. 
Disobedience often results because the person who claims 
to be in authority almost invites it through the tone of 
voice that carries no confidence but rather implies that dis- 
obedience is expected; so great is the power of uncon- 
scious suggestion. 

There is a way of speaking that brooks no disobedience. 
It need not be dictatorial nor given with any outward 
flourish of authority, for it is possibh to speak naturally 
but with a suggestion of reserve force that never fails of 
results. 

For the young teacher it is profitable to look back over 
her own school days and pass in review her various teachers. 
She will find some whose authority she never questioned, 
whom she always obeyed, not through fear of penalty, but 
because the thought of doing otherwise never entered her 
head. These are the teachers of whom she carries the most 
pleasant memories. There may have been others far more 
indulgent, often far more considerate of personal wishes, 
and yet these are not the ones held in highest regard. 
Young people will fight to the last ditch for their own way 
and yet the persons whom they honor the most are those 



DISCIPLINE US 

who have insisted upon their eventually doing the right 
thing. 

That school is best disciplined in which there is the least 
manifestation of authority ; that control is strongest which 
is gained with the least display of effort, and 
with the least friction. When this condition otscipUne 
exists and everything apparently runs auto- 
matically, there is sure to be back of the school a strong 
guiding hand that is never entirely off the lever. The 
skilled engineer handles his engine without display of en- 
deavor. The man in the pilot house of a great liner who 
steers a true course and leaves a straight wake behind does 
it with perfect ease and without constantly turning his 
wheel. 

The inexperienced are often deceived into thinking that 
because a thing is done without show of exertion that 
exertion is not necessary. The teacher who is deluded by 
the appearance of ease in the work of another and who 
attempts to imitate this appearance and the appearance 
only, falls into disaster. The beginner cannot expect to do 
anything as easily as the trained individual and the begin- 
ning teacher will find eternal vigilance, line upon line, pre- 
cept upon precept, the only safe daily practice. The ease 
will come, but only after continued exertion. 

The experienced teacher can drive with a loose rein, for 
she knows just how long to leave it loose and when it is 
necessary to let the school feel that the guiding hand is 
still in control. Colts sometimes take the bit in their 
teeth and run away with everything if they feel the unsteadi- 
ness of the inexperienced hand upon the rein. 

When things do not go as they should, when results are 
unsatisfactory, it becomes the first business of the teacher 
to sit calmly down, and, looking the situation fairly in the 



124 THE TEACHER 

eye, ask this question, "Where have I made a mistake?" 

Nine times out of ten the teacher will discover that the 
fault is hers. The mistake has not been in purpose, gen- 
erally it is made unconsciously ; sometimes it 
Ixamination ^^ ^^ error of judgment, sometimes lack of con- 
trol, but somehow, somewhere it is usually hers, 
and the situation must be faced. 

Sometimes the difficulty may be so slight that the teacher 
need only learn her lesson for the future. Sometimes it may 
have wrought an injustice to a pupil or to a group of 
pupils. When this is true, but one course is open, and 
that is a frank admission of the wrong and a spirit of 
willingness to do everything possible to correct the mistake. 

Influence with young people is never lost by such a 
course unless the teacher habitually fall into error. But 
this cannot or should not occur, for one who is always 
making mistakes soon demonstrates that teaching is not his 
legitimate occupation. Frank acknowledgment of a fault 
by a teacher whose judgment is usually right will increase 
confidence, but stubborn adherence to a line of action 
manifestly wrong will w^eaken power. 

Every teacher Is human; occasional mistakes are certain 
to be made. 



CHAPTER X 

DISCIPLINE SPECIFICALLY 
CONSIDERED 

In these days of educational unrest, brought about 
through eager seeking for better ways, certain fundamen- 
tal principles have become somewhat clouded. In the 
attempt to get away from despised martinet 
methods, there has been a tendency to break tjclnse ^"^ 
away from all restraint. 

The kindergarten teaches the right of the individual and 
the desirability of allowing each child to develop according 
to his own particular characteristics in a natural, uncon- 
scious way. This idea has permeated the entire educational 
system and, through its perversion, has completely run away 
with some teachers. Natural development has too often 
come to mean unrestrained and undirected action. The 
will of the child is allowed to lead; he must be entertained 
and amused ; his desires and whims must never be thwarted. 
Some educators fail to discriminate between the will of the 
child and the nature of the child. Froebel would rise from 
his grave and walk the earth in indignation could he know 
a tithe of the enormities committed in his name. 

The liberty of the individual has every claim to the 
fullest consideration, but there is a decided difference 
between liberty and license. The former should never be 
allowed to degenerate into the latter, for such degeneracy 
is the rankest injustice to the child. 

125 



126 THE TEACHER 

The liberty that belongs to the school-room is the liberty 
to work without disturbance or distraction. That liberty 
the teacher, through her power to discipline wisely, must 
furnish to every individual. 

A school is a community and must always be considered 
as such. No privilege, no consideration can be granted 
to any member which is detrimental to the body as a whole. 
To this extent the liberty of the individual must be held 
subservient to the good of the entire group. This is merely 
good citizenship. 

There are two ends to be accomplished through punish- 
ment: first, reform; second, prevention. The first has 
largely to do with the individual punished to 
Pun?shment ^he end of teaching him to mend his ways; the 
second affects the school in general, showing, 
through example of the prime offender, what is likely to 
happen to anyone found in similar fault. 

The difficulty of dealing with absolute justice arises from 
this double obligation. To handle each pupil alone and do 
no violence to his nature would be comparatively easy ; to 
preserve that same justice when he becomes a part of organ- 
ized society is more difficult. The general good of the 
school and the right of the individual are both to be kept 
constantly in mind. The teacher must preserve both with- 
out violence to either interest. 

There is a difference even in different days. What will 
be effective one day will, for some unknown reason, accom- 
plish nothing on another. One must feel the temper of 
the school and mete out punishment accordingly. 

While all dealing with young people should be sympa- 
thetic, just, and considerate, there comes a time when it is 
imperative to "be cruel only to be kind." No hard and 
fast rules can be laid down to decide when this time comes ; 



DISCIPLINE CONSIDERED 1^7 

the decision must be trusted to the moment. But when 
the hour has struck, the severe and merited punishment 
must be administered by the teacher without 
flinching. Severity 

There is a way of doing this, however, that 
reveals the velvet hand beneath the iron glove. In the first 
place, it must be just. If it is, the offender will recognize 
the fact either at the time or later. In the second place, 
the culprit must know that there is no personal feeling 
in the action of the teacher. 

There is a way to punish and to punish severely so that 
the child will know that the action is merely the just 
consequence of violation of law. It should be possible 
for a teacher to inflict a penalty and still leave upon the 
pupil the impression that while his offense is not condoned, 
the kindly regard toward him is unchanged. 

As far as possible, punishments should be logical, fol- 
lowing naturally upon the offense. The cases are rare 
when such punishments fail to be accepted as 
merited. This is especially true of boys. As Be Logical 
a rule they submit to punishment with much 
better grace than girls. If they violate a law, they take 
the penalty without whimpering. Their very willingness 
to pay often makes it difficult to give them their just 
deserts. 

It is not always easy to find a punishment which follows 
the offense logically, but when it can be done the effect is 
impressive. 

A particular order in dismissal for luncheon was regu- 
larly followed in a certain school. It had been planned to 
rotate the order so that each one of five sections went first on 
its appointed day. That made it fair for everybody. The 
teacher had made the divisions and announced the order to 



128 THE TEACHER 

the school and they dismissed themselves each day without 
further attention from her. There were, of course, the 
few lawless members to be found everywhere who watched 
their chance to get out ahead of time. The teacher kept 
them until the last for a week or so and soon broke up the 
tendency. It is not often that retribution can be brought 
home so vitally as it was here to a group of hungry children. 

A boy had been sent from class once or twice as a means 
of discipline but the remedy had not wrought a cure. He 
was a bright student and that meant for him just so much 
more time to himself, for he could easily keep up his work 
and be out of class once in a while. One day, when he was 
especially troublesome, the teacher did not send him out 
as the boy evidently expected, but directed him to sit in the 
room entirely apart from the rest of the class, adding: 
"I shall not consider you a member of the class and you 
may not recite. You may come after school and the 
length of your recitation then will depend upon your 
conduct during the rest of the hour." 

He ceased from troubling at once. That was a bit of 
good discipline, for disorder carried its own logical punish- 
ment, and the situation was practically turned over to the 
boy. 

A Greek teacher left a class of three boys alone for five 
minutes during recitation time. They had work enough 
to keep them busy, but they found pelting each other with 
chalk far more interesting. When the teacher returned, 
the floor showed the effect of the skirmish. Any teacher 
would have made the boys pick up the chalk, and so did 
this one ; but he did not stop there. When the ammunition 
was all deposited upon his desk, he told them to report 
after school. 



DISCIPLINE CONSIDERED 129 

When they appeared, the chalk was divided into three 
equal piles. He sent the boys to the board and kept them 
there, writing Greek exercises with that same chalk, until 
every scrap of it was used up, and he made them wear it so 
close that they scraped their finger-nails uncomfortably 
in the process. 

They took the punishment in good nature, for they knew 
they deserved it, and, besides, they learned a lot of Greek. 

There is equally a time to be utterly illogical. The good 
disciplinarian will know when that time comes, although it 
usually arrives unexpectedly, growing out of 
the conditions as they develop rapidly in han- nfojjc'ji®® ^^ 
dling an individual case. 

In a high school where the single session plan was used, 
it was the custom to excuse all pupils for the last period 
if their work for the day was completed. Three boys 
deliberately left school at about the middle of the morning. 
When the principal investigated the cases, there seemed to 
be no extenuating circumstances. Two of the boys, under 
the regulation, were at liberty to go the last period. The 
principal immediately took that privilege away, requiring 
them to stay in the assembly-room, and in addition, he 
directed them to return in the afternoon for extra time. 
This was logical punishment. 

Turning to the other boy, whom he knew but slightly, 
he asked, "Are you excused the last hour.^" 

"No," growled the boy, "I can't ever get away unless I 
run away. I always have a recitation that last hour. They 
won't let me change sections, so I have to stay." 

The principal left the room without a word. When 
he returned, he handed the boy a written programme, say- 
ing: "I have changed your programme so 3'ou will be 



130 THE TEACHER 

free the last hour. This will go into effect today. I hope 
you will have a good time." 

The boy looked up in amazement, not even thanking the 
principal. He could only stare. 

"That is all," said the principal, and the boy passed 
out, half-dazed and not quite understanding why he had 
not received the punishment meted out to his fellow cul- 
prits. But the treatment produced the desired effect. That 
boy never again ran away from school, and his confidence 
in the principal knew no bounds. 

It is not necessary to treat every case like every other 
case, even though all seem to be infractions of the same 
law. One must never lose sight of the fact that a school 
is made up of individuals each one different from every 
other one. Even the individual changes from time to time. 
What is good for one may be the worst possible thing for 
another. 

So far as possible, do the unexpected. When a school 
learns that a certain punishment will regularly follow a 
certain offense, they become used to it and it 
Unexpected ^^^^^ ^^^ force. Individuals will endure it for a 
time, and will then discover that, like other 
discomforts, it is easier to bear after each repetition, until 
soon all the efficacy of the punishment is gone. 

Boys, particularly, after having experienced a penalty, 
will begin deliberately to count the cost and sometimes 
will decide that they are willing to pay. 

For instance, suppose there should be some particular 
social attraction to which certain young people are entirely 
free to go early in the afternoon. The temptation to cut 
school may be very strong to those not free. Suppose a 
fixed penalty for such offense is the making up of, say, 



DISCIPLINE CONSIDERED 131 

five or six fold the lost time. A boy may be perfectly will- 
ing to pay the price even when it seems exorbitant. If he 
can thus surely count the cost, he may be willing to draw 
on the future for time which holds, so far as he knows, no 
such promise of delight as does this particular afternoon. 
But when the penalty is unknown, when the pupil cannot 
guess with any degree of certainty what the consequences 
will be, but knows only that he will get full measure, he 
decides as most of us do, chat it is better to 

"Bear those ills we have 

Than fly to others that we know not of." 

The unexpected that turns pleasantly is also a good 
influence. And right here I should like to emphasize the 
fact that the pleasant acts of a teacher are among the 
most effective disciplinary agencies. The more kindly, 
considerate, interesting things a teacher can find to do 
during the course of the day, the greater her power and 
efficiency. 

It is surprising how full a day is of such opportunities : 
it is equally surprising how blind many teachers are to 
them. No one can tell another what to do in this direction. 
Each teacher must study her own school, take stock of her 
particular opportunities, and have, above all, a deep human 
interest that sees deeper than formalities, that knows the 
state of the child's mind and reads aright its needs. 

A certain gentleman delights to tell how algebra was 
taught in a school which he frequently visited. 

As he sat by the teacher's side, a boy with the scowl of 
perplexity and undue nervous strain upon his face came 
for help. 



132 THE TEACHER 

"I can't get that example," he said, and the scowl deep- 
ened as he whined out his complaint. "I've worked it over 
a dozen times and it comes out just the same every time." 

The teacher never looked at tlie example at all but studied 
the boy's face. 

"Have you your skates here.^" was her irrelevant ques- 
tion. 

"Yes," came from the surprised boy, for he did not see 
what that had to do with algebra. 

"Leave your book on my desk, put on your skates, and 
go out and skate half an hour." 

She was a wise teacher, a good disciplinarian. She knew 
that longer confinement in the school-room would result 
only in restlessness on his part, and, at this juncture, he 
could learn more algebra skating than he could attempting 
to hold a fagged brain to longer attention. 

The teacher upon whom the pupils cannot reckon from 
day to day is usually apt to keep them pretty well in hand. 
She may not play the game according to set rules, but she 
is likely to win. 

In this connection there comes to mind a dear old man 
who used to play chess against all the good players in the 
little town, and was usually victorious. His opponents 
often complained that he played a very irregular game; 
that he did not make the conventional openings and in 
various other wa3^s failed to follow scientific development. 
His methods so completely disconcerted them that they 
never knew what he was going to do next. 

One evening, having said "Checkmate" to his opponent, 
who was complaining of these peculiarities, he turned upon 
him with this question, "But I beat you, don't I?" 

The player could not deny the fact, nor that he did it 
honestly although unconventionally. 



DISCIPLINE CONSIDERED 133 

Monotony becomes as ineffective in discipline as else- 
where. To do the same thing over and over again will 
soon defeat its own purpose. We all get used 
to everything, even punishment. The teacher Monotony 
whose methods are varied and interesting, who 
is resourceful, and whose actions cannot be reckoned upon, 
is pretty sure to have her school under good control. 

The restless, uneasy boy that is in every school, had left 
his seat frequentlj^ and had moved about the room when 
it was disturbing to his neighbors. The teacher had ex- 
hausted the usual and evident methods with no effect. He 
was a keen-witted youth, as that type generally is, so she 
was sure of his quick appreciation. She took from her 
desk a piece of ordinary twine. She tied one end of this 
about his arm and the other end to the back of the desk. 
Neither teacher nor pupil spoke, although both smiled in 
the process. The plan worked, and for the rest of the 
period the boy sat quietly in his seat, looking occasionally 
with an amused expression at the frail restraining band. 

That experiment worked once and worked well, but a 
repetition of it would have been a failure. 

A bo3^ put on the board an especially badly written exer- 
cise. The teacher looked at it in disgust, then, with the 
flat side of the chalk he enclosed it with the outline of a 
traveling bag, exclaiming, "There, take that home with you 
and don't ever bring it back here!" The criticism was 
picturesque, but a repetition of it would have been stupid. 

Ingenuity, keenness of wit, is a valuable asset, but there 
is danger of falling into the pit of repetition. Nothing 
is more tiresome than the man or woman who tells the 
same old story or the same old joke over and over again. 
Whenever the unusual is resorted to in discipline, the same 
kind of care must be exercised to avoid repetition. How- 



134 THE TEACHER 

ever, the individual who is keen enough to think out the 
unusual thing is usuall}^ keen enough to avoid this fault. 

Good discipline comes rarely as the result of much talk- 
ins*. The teacher whose words fall with the incessant 
patter of rain-drops will soon find the children with their 
umbrellas of indifference raised for protection. 

Two friends were talking near an open window while 
the little daughter of one of them played just outside. 
The attention of the mother's friend was attracted by the 
voice of the child. Listening to what the child was saying, 
she discovered that she was repeating at intervals, "Yes, 
mother," "All right, mother." 

The mother had the habit of talking constantly to the 
child, telling her not to do this or not to do that, but always 
in a perfectly amiable tone. This had gone on so long 
and so continuously that the child had ceased to give it any 
attention. Now, hearing her mother's voice, and not know- 
ing or caring what she was sa3dng, she was answering auto- 
matically while she continued her own pursuits without 
interruption. She had put up her umbrella. 

But even when an offense must have correction, it is 
not always wise to administer it at once. It may not be 
easy to wait, but a little wisdom in thus waiting 
Time will often make correction profitable when 

open reproof at the time will defeat its pur- 
pose. No one, big or little, likes to have his faults pub- 
lished, and usually it Is wiser to wait until you can talk 
with the pupil alone. Never humiliate a child if It can be 
avoided. Under all circumstances try to preserve his self- 
respect. 

In "The Widow O'Callaghan's Boys," the whole philoso- 
phy In this line Is summed up In that good lady's decision 
as to the best method of dealing with the oldest of her 



DISCIPLINE CONSIDERED 135 

six boys when she found it necessary to reprove him. 

"There's toinies to be speakin' and toimes to be kapin' 
still. Niver a word must I be sayin' till the rest of 'em's 
abed, and it's hard waitin', so it is. It's my belafe that's 
what makes some boys so unruly — takin' 'em at the wrong 
toime. Sure and boys has their feelin's loike the rest of 
the world. Spake to 'em by their lone silves when you've 
aught to say to 'em. There's niver a man of 'em all, not 
even Gineral Brady himself would loike bein' bawled at in 
a crowd about somethin' that needed thinkin' over." 

Having punished and punished severely, the account 
should be considered settled, "the wet sponge drawn across 
the accusing slate." 

Reprove a pupil severely for a particular fault and be 
strong enough not to sulk at him at other times. Many 
weak teachers will find themselves unable to 
treat a pupil the same after correction as Sulking 
before. To offend in one particular does not 
necessarily mean that boy or girl is not, in other respects, 
worthy the same consideration as before the particular 
offense. Instead of discriminating against the pupil, it is 
well sometimes to watch for an opportunity to show him, 
as soon as possible, that you bear him no ill-will. 

There are countless little services which a teacher nat- 
urally asks of the boys and girls and which they are glad 
to perform. If a child has been brought to correction, 
when the next httle office is to be performed, do not forget 
the offender and, if he is one of two or three who might 
naturally be called upon, give him the preference. If an 
opportunity does not come readily, then be ingenious 
enough to invent one. 

It takes a big individual to do this. The child who 
has been guilty of a serious fault is too often put outside 



136 THE TEACHER 

the pale of kindly regard; the teacher descends to the 
level of the untutored and sulks at the offender. If this is 
human nature, fight against it, and when there arises an 
occasion when one must be especially severe to a child, find 
a chance as soon as possible to be especially kind to him. 
Seek out some little service to ask of him, think out some- 
thing to say far removed from the scene of battle, use 
the utmost ingenuit}^ to prove that your personal feelings 
are only of the kindest. He will not expect it, for he 
always assumes that the recent fault is as insistent in your 
mind as in his. He is hugging it so close to his own vision 
that he can see nothing else. The teacher must help him 
remove it to the proper distance, — get it into right per- 
spective. In other words, because a pupil has offended 
in one particular, that is no reason for making him an 
outcast. 

Here the Great Teacher becomes the model. Did He 
ever compromise with wrong? Was He ever other than 
kind and tender to the offender.? Like Him, the worthy 
teacher must learn to "take the sin by the throat but the 
sinner by the hand." 

Many slight irregularities occur in the school-room that 
are unimportant, and if they are not stimulated to growth 
by undue attention from the teacher, will pass 
Ephemeral ^"^^ forgetfulness over night. If the matter 
in hand is only a trifle, is merely a fleeting 
case, then be careful not to overestimate its importance. 
It is surprising how many things will right themselves if 
left alone. The good disciplinarian will have enough to do 
without taking up unimportant things and magnifying 
them into great ones. 

Every successful teacher must possess what artists call a 
sense of values. All offenses in school are not of equal im- 



DISCIPLINE CONSIDERED 137 

portance and one must be able to judge them relatively. 
A lie is worse than a burst of laughter; a noisy boy is 
not as unpardonable as a quiet sneak. 

A school was once torn to its foundations because the 
teacher lacked this power of discrimination. He allowed 
himself to show annoyance at little things. The school 
soon recognized this weakness and were not slow in invent- 
ing trivial ways of tormenting him. 

One day a boy in the back of the room put his foot upon 
a steel-tipped penholder. By rolling it back and forth 
with his foot, he found that it made a delightfully irritating 
crackling sound. It was a mean little trick, but, had he 
been left alone, the boy would soon have tired of it, and 
there would have been no story to tell. But with this man 
such a course was impossible. He stopped his recitation, 
called the boy to his desk, thus attracting the attention of 
everybody in the room, and then he said the wrong thing 
to him. 

The boy grew angry and so did the teacher, and the 
trifling first offense resulted in the boy's dismissal from 
school. Even then serious consequences might have been 
averted, but the wrath of the teacher increased as he thought 
about it, and he finally said that if the boy were reinstated 
in school he would leave. 

The superintendent and the board investigated the case. 
They did not consider the rolling of a penholder a crime nor 
loss of temper a sufficient reason for keeping the boy per- 
manently out of school. They decided that, with proper 
acknowledgment of his fault, which the boy was perfectly 
willing to make, he might go back. They had heard the 
teacher's ultimatum, but they assumed that it was merely 
the result of momentary anger. 

The boy made courteous attempts toward full amends, 



138 THE TEACHER 

admitting that the fault was all his, but his advances were 
repulsed and the teacher left the school. He did it in 
haste and regretted it very soon. 

Many such foolish tricks will die a natural death if left 
to themselves. Occasionally these small disturbances are 
really accidental ; when they are not, it is sometimes politic 
to assume that they may be, and pay no attention. If 
they are intended to annoy, then ignoring the matter robs 
the joke of its point, and all pleasure in continuing it is 
lost. 

Many things that look to a teacher like disorder the 
school will not notice at all unless attention is called to 
them by reproof. These are often the result of atmos- 
pheric conditions, sometimes nothing but your own nervous- 
ness. 

There is great power in taking the attitude of expecting 
that everything will go as it should. Suspicion invariably 
arouses cause for suspicion. Watch a pupil 
Optimism needlessly and he will soon give you something 
to watch. Assume that there is nothing to 
watch and much that might have made trouble will never 
come to the surface. 

A school takes instinctively the attitude of the person in 
charge. The masterful individual will be master and that, 
too, without any spectacular show of authority. He will 
usually accomplish this by going steadily about his busi- 
ness and trusting the rest to follow. 

A man who had had long and successful experience in 
teaching gave to his son who was just entering upon the pro- 
fession this bit of very sane advice: "You go ahead and 
teach and let them behave." 

There is great wisdom in that one word, "Z^f." Many 
teachers will not let a school behave. 



DISCIPLINE CONSIDERED 139 

Whoever stands in a position of responsibility is com- 
pelled to make frequent criticisms, but he hould strive con- 
stantly to get on with as few as possible. The 
very purpose of criticism is often defeated by Nagging 
constantly hammering away at the same thing. 

The strain of living with a certain group of boys and 
girls all day long, day after day, is considerable and some- 
times things get close to one's nerves. When this is true, 
the cause of disturbance which we attribute to something 
else may exist in ourselves. Some particular boy may have 
been troublesome until patience is worn threadbare. The 
teacher begins to nag and, when that happens, injustice is 
sure to follow. To fall into the nagging habit is easy 
and the reflex action upon the nagger is perhaps the worst 
thing about it. By constantly noticing a fault and speak- 
ing about it every time it is noticed, both off*ense and 
off'ender eventually get on to the nerves and the way to 
effective criticism is blocked. 

An especially troublesome boy once, in a burst of irrita- 
tion, said to his teacher, "You just watch me and find fault 
with me all the time, but the others do exactly the same 
things and you don't say a word." 

His remark was startling, for he and the teacher were 
really the best of friends. 

Thinking for a moment, she answered, "I believe you are 
right. You have disturbed me so often and so long that 
I can't help being conscious of your every action. No 
doubt I have been nagging you without realizing it, but 
I will stop. Let us make a bargain. For a week, no matter 
how much you may disturb me, I will try not to call you 
to order before the school. On the other hand, I want you 
to promise to take some thoughtful responsibility of your 
own actions. Help me get you off my nerves and back into 



140 THE TEACHER 

the same relative position that the others occupy and where 
I can see your actions in right proportions." 

The compact was sealed. Each succeeding day things 
went better and by the end of the week the teacher was sur- 
prised to discover that there were hours when she did not 
think of the boy at all. She could not remember when he 
had been entirely off her mind. By deliberately turning 
her back upon his faults, her morbid sensitiveness to his 
every move had disappeared, he had slipped back into his 
normal place among the rest of the boys, she had ceased 
to nag, and her nerves were restored to healthful strength. 

Probably nothing is more fatal to good discipline than a 

set of rules with a fixed penalty. Did any teacher ever 

announce such a set that the first violation of 

Rules them was not an exception calling for special 

consideration and not an application of the 

prescribed penalty? 

It is a part of good management to avoid such a con- 
tingency. Rules and the need for them will decrease as 
power in control increases. This does not in the least 
imply any slip-shod way of doing things. Rules may exist 
in the mind of the teacher, or the}^ may even be announced, 
but it is not necessary to take the school into full confidence. 

A teacher may determine very definitely the standard to 
which she Mashes to bring a room; it is well to fix pretty 
definitely in mind what will be done in cases where individuals 
do not come up to those standards, but the statement should 
never take the form of a threat as to what will be done if 
any pupil offends in any one particular. Trouble is sure 
to follow. The situation may be perfectly clear in the 
teacher's mind that a particular punishment should be the 
consequence of a particular offense, but just as sure as 
public announcement is made of the fact, just so sure is the 



DISCIPLINE CONSIDERED 141 

first culprit bound to be boy or girl whom the conditions 
do not fit at all and upon whom the carrying out of the 
threatened course of action is bound to work injustice. 

Ideal schemes always work with perfect smoothness, but 
toss into them the human element and there is a hitch in 
the machinery at once. 

Discipline exists for the sake of the school, for the sake 
of assuring to the scliool that liberty before mentioned, the 
liberty to work without interruption. To this end certain 
directions should be given, certain conventions established. 
These, in the mind of the teacher, may amount to rules, 
and there should be just as great insistence in seeing that 
they are fulfilled as though they had been presented as iron- 
clad orders. 

To accomplish this, eternal vigilance is necessary. Noth- 
ing can be allowed to slip out of the teacher's controlling 
hand, but all this should be accomplished with as little 
show of authority as possible. It calls for intensive appre- 
ciation of the individual. A smile, a sharp reproof, a look, 
a touch of the hand, a lifting of the eyebrow, is often suf- 
ficient when relations between teacher and pupil are right. 
Sometimes the most uncompromising severity is the only 
course; sometimes pla^^fulness, a bit of pleasant humor, 
will solve the question. 

Let the way be what it may, if only hard and fast rules 
are allowed to be little in evidence. 

It is sadly true that some teachers sink to the level of 
children when dealing with them. They show no more con- 
trol, no more breadth of nature, often no more 
maturity. Because a child has offended in some Became a 
little particular, they sulk at him for the rest 
of the day, sometimes longer. It reminds one of the trick 
of our childhood when, having taken offense at a playmate. 



142 THE TEACHER 

we put forth that fearful threat, "I'll never speak to you 
again !" 

In this connection, it might be well for teachers often 
to ponder the words, "When I was a child I spake as a 
child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child, but 
when I became a man I put away childish things." 

Unfortunately, it is often true that childish things are 
not put entirely away. Unless a teacher can prove herself 
bigger than the child, more generous in attitude, more 
ready to overlook mistakes, she is not ready to be his guide. 
Personal feeling has no place in this relation. What the 
child does to the teacher, what he says to the teacher, is 
unimportant except as it throws light upon the child's 
nature. The all-important thing is that the teacher be big 
enough and wise enough to set the feet of the child in the 
better way and to hold him there with steady guiding hand 
until he is strong enough to go alone. 

For successful discipline there is no better motto than is 
found in those words of Amiel: "Be swift to love; make 

haste to be kind!" 
^inaWy In all reverence let it be said: there should 

alwa3^s be something of the Christ attitude in 
dealing with young people. With Him there was no con- 
doning a fault, no compromise between right and wrong, 
no lack of severity when necessary, but through it all His 
great love for the individual shone radiant and tender. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 

In the early organization of schools, the standard for 
the recitation was pretty thoroughly covered by the diction- 
ary definition of the word: "The rehearsal by a pupil or 
student of a lesson or exercise to a teacher or other person ; 
a meeting of a class for the purpose of being orally ex- 
amined in a lesson." 

Under this organization a certain number of lines, pages, 
examples, or what not, was assigned for a particular lesson. 
The next day the pupil was expected to recite again this 
specific measure of facts, often in the exact words of the 
text. This was what education then stood for. Today we 
know that the recitation means vastly more than that, and 
yet our class work follows largely the old model. 

The time may come when the recitation as we now con- 
duct it will be abolished and the individual will be helped by 
the schools to the highest training of which he is capable. 

This emancipation cannot come all at once, but little by 
little the educational body will develop school work toward 
an ideal perhaps not yet sighted. In the meantime most 
schools will have to proceed with the days divided into 
recitation periods, and each teacher must do her best during 
the allotted time. 

How clear are teachers generally as to the purpose of 
the recitation? How many have a definite idea as to what 
should finally be accomplished through it? Custom has 

143 



144 THE TEACHER 

long prescribed a certain form, and the generally accepted 

plan of conducting recitations still follows too closely and 

too woodenly this old established order. We 

Purpose . 

of the clinej to the relic of the past althouech many 

Recitation ^ , ^ . ... 

progressive teachers are putting inspiration 
through independent ways into the class work. 

The school once held that it had done its full duty if, 
within a given time, it had crammed a certain number of 
facts into the pupil's head. 

This is no longer the standard. The recitation is for the 
development of mental power, and this word, power, should 
ever stand before the teacher's mind in big capitals. Every 
minute of the recitation that gives to the child added power 
is serving its purpose; every minute that fails to develop 
power is worse than wasted. 

The first step in this direction must be the establishment 
of right working relations between teacher and pupils. Too 
often the teacher is on one side of the ques- 
of"pupits tion, with the class individually or collectively 

arrayed on the other. The recitation becomes 
a sort of game in which the pupil tries to conceal his igno- 
rance from the teacher, while the teacher uses all the arts 
known to the trade to trap him ; a fencing match in which 
the teacher is always looking for an opening in the defense 
of the pupil and proudly calls a touch if she succeeds in 
getting past his guard. 

The pupil comes fearfully to the recitation upon the 
lesson assigned the day before which he has studied as 
best he could in a vague, uncomprehending w^ay. If the 
majority of the class do moderately well, another allotment 
of difficulties is meted out and they are sent away to floun- 
der around in them for another twenty-four hours. 



SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 145 

The person who goes to a physician frankly reveals to 
him the physical weakness for which he is seeking aid. He 
realizes that he is the loser if he conceals any troublesome 
symptoms that may have a bearing upon the unhealthy 
condition. The patient is seeking help and before the 
physician can give it, he must know the truth. 

The teacher stands, or should stand, in the position of a 
willing, eager helper to young people. The first step should 
be to inspire such confidence that the pupil will be willing 
to let the teacher know that the lesson assigned has offered 
difficulties too great for his present powers to master. In- 
stead of being ashamed of this seeming ignorance, he 
should be made to feel that the recitation is held partly for 
the purpose of finding out where each child needs wise assist- 
ance. 

This attitude is not easily obtained, for there are genera- 
tions of acceptance of the false one behind us, but it is 
imperative that it eventually be established. Even then, con- 
stant watchfulness is necessary to maintain it. 

For w^hom does the recitation exist, the class or the 

teacher.^ Surely it must be for both. If the efficiency of 

the pupil falls below the standard, it usually „ 

^ ^ ' ,.' Responsi- 

will be found that the efficiency of the teacher biiity of the 

• 1 Teacher 

IS below par. The test of one is the test of 
the other. Repeated failure on the part of the pupil can 
generally be charged up to failure somewhere on the part 
of the teacher. If the class reports sum up each week 
with low, very low, standings for a majority of the class, 
then the teacher is at fault. She may be attempting more 
than the class is prepared to do ; she may not have the 
ability to hold them up to the best that they are capable 
of; she is failing in inspirational power or in some other 



148 THE TEACHER 

particular. Let her never for a moment try to place the 
blame elsewhere, but diligently search out her own fault. 
Honest endeavor will soon reveal it. 

It goes without saying that the teacher must be familiar 

with the subject to be taught. The familiarity may not 

be of very long standing, and every good 

Class teacher will know more about a lesson at its 

Preparation 

close than at the beginning of the recitation. 
Daily preparation is demanded for each day's work. This 
consists of a clear knowledge of the topic to be brought up 
that day and also a fairly definite acquaintance with the 
lesson to be assigned. This is necessary for a right conduct 
of the class work and a just dividing of time between the 
various parts. 

No matter how familiar one may think he is with a given 
subject, when he attempts to instruct another in that same 
subject, it immediately becomes clouded with vagueness and 
loses sharpness of detail. 

It is one thing to know geography in a general way ; it 
is quite a different matter to be ready with accurate informa- 
tion on the rivers, lakes, cities, and industries of any given 
country and to be able to trace the physical or social con- 
ditions that brought this or that region into prominence 
and prosperit}^ 

To be clear and accurate upon the comparatively simple 
subjects of the lower grades will require very much more 
definite study on the part of new teachers than most of 
them suspect. Even after long experience, there will still 
remain the necessity of careful preparation upon each 
lesson. 

As one goes higher and higher in the grades this neces- 
sity for preparation becomes increasingly insistent. Arith- 
metic has problems that sometimes do not yield their cor- 



SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 147 

rect answers at the first touch ; the EngHsh language offers 
many tangles. 

Not only should the lessons for each day be carefully 
studied, but the teacher should keep far enough ahead of 
the classes, in this special preparation, to allow sufficient 
time for unforeseen difficulties. They are sure to lie in 
ambush ahead. 

It will not be sufficient just to keep even with the class 
or a day or two ahead of it, but the teacher should study, 
really study, far ahead. 

More than that, a teacher's preparation must far outrun 
that just technically demanded for the particular recita- 
tion. To teach the simplest thing well, there must be in 
the mind of the teacher a wide background of knowledge 
that may never appear in the class-room. It is none the 
less valuable, for it gives the teacher confidence in herself, 
helps throw into the foreground the important points, and 
makes for greater general efficiency. 

The constant aim in teaching should be to simplify, not 
to make difficult. Troubles enough arise after the teacher 
has done all in her power to make the way 
plain. Simplicity 

The ability to seize upon the salient points 
and hold them clearly up to the view of the class is a most 
desirable accomplishment. To do this, one must possess a 
mind trained to a sense of values and must be able to take 
hold of the point or points to which all the rest of the 
subject is naturally attached. Every subject, every phase 
of a subject, has some features that are vital. These are 
the ones to emphasize, and the ones which the class should 
be trained to select for themselves. 

All life is a matter of selection, of taking what really is 
vital to the condition. 



148 THE TEACHER 

The inexperienced teacher will take too much for granted 
in the attainments of the class. There will be a tendency to 

depend upon a single impression. 
iT^rut^^^ Drill! drill! drill! Review! review! review! 

must be the watchword of every recitation for 
him who hopes to attain lasting results. 

A young man in his first year of teaching had classes 
in geometry. He was well prepared in the subject-matter, 
knew his geometry, was interested in teaching, was enthu- 
siastic, and the class all liked him. Each day's work was 
well presented and the mathematical points carefully and 
clearly brought out. Everything seemed to be going well ; 
both teacher and class were satisfied. No one was at all 
disturbed except the study-room teacher in whose presence 
the class made its preparation. It seemed to her that geome- 
try was not sufficiently in evidence in the hours devoted to 
study. She gained the impression that the pupils were 
taking the matter too lightly and were thinking themselves 
prepared when they had not spent the time necessary for 

She spoke of it to the teacher, but he assured her that 
the students were all making excellent progress and that 
failure in recitation was almost unknown. Such a statement 
did not quiet the fears of the experienced teacher, but she 
could do nothing more. 

When examinations were held, they proved that, while 
each day's class work might have been done fairly well, 
there had been no real mastery of the subject except by 
two or three pupils of that type who need no teacher, 
anyway. The result showed almost complete failure and no 
one was more surprised over it than the teacher. 

His fault was in taking too much for granted and for- 



SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 149 

getting that the young mind cannot take the pace of the 
older one. He assigned lessons that were too long, went too 
rapidly over the fundamentals, took the recitation of one or 
two as representative of the class attainment, and did too 
much of the reciting himself. He had not understood that 
satisfactory results in geometry could be gained only by 
very slow work at first, with particular attention in recita- 
tions to logical development of subject-matter and to form 
of expression. He had gone too rapidlj'^ and had lost sight 
of the importance of drill. He had also taken it for granted 
that his work consisted in seeing that the lessons were 
assigned and the various points once brought to the atten- 
tion of the class, assuming that they would do the rest. 

Repetition is of the utmost importance. One of the 
greatest teachers this country has ever known, Professor 
Edward Olney, of the University of Michigan, once said 
that one example done ten times carried more teaching value 
than ten examples done once. 

Whoever has tried this expedient knows that this is the 
truth. By this he did not mean copying the solution the 
required number of times, but an independent attacking of 
a particular problem, attacking it repeatedly until its solu- 
tion becomes automatic. 

Even a fairly clear knowledge of an example is not 
possible to the young mind through a single solution. 

Here is a method which is good for both pupil and 
teacher : collect the papers for the day, then set the pupils 
immediately to reproducing them. Both they and you will 
be surprised at the difference in the character of the two 
papers and that difference does not indicate, either, that the 
first papers were not honestly prepared. 

Not seven times seven, but seventy times seven ; line upon 



150 THE TEACHER 

line; precept upon precept; getting over and over again 
accurate responses to oft-repeated questions, will produce 
results, and nothing else will. 

Through the recitation, the habit of stud3dng together 
can be watched. It is not easy for the pupil to see the 
dangers of this practice. This is particularly 
To^gtthl?- difficult as the results are not all harmful. 

Sometimes it is the very best thing that can 
be done. With all due respect to the power of experience, 
it is also true that pupils can occasionally be of greater 
assistance to each other than the very best of teachers. The 
subject should be made one of frequent discussion in class 
and the teacher should guard against the condition which 
allows the weak pupil to become a parasite upon the brain 
of another. 

It is good for two minds of equal caliber to discuss a 
lesson together if this does not become a matter of daily 
occurrence. The great danger comes when two pupils study 
together with a division of labor. For instance, two young 
girls regularly prepared their Cicero lesson together. One 
had almost a genius for apprehending Latin construction. 
Even before she knew the meaning of half the words, she 
could see their grammatical relation and be sure of the con- 
struction of the sentence. The other one had an excellent 
verbal memory. She furnished rapidly the root meaning of 
the words and the first one turned them into satisfactory 
translation. The result was very quick preparation of each 
day's lesson. The girl who furnished the meaning of the 
words could never work out a satisfactory translation alone ; 
the other never attained a good vocabulary and so her 
advanced study, when she and her friend had gone different 
ways, was laborious, keeping her always tied to a lexicon. 

It is a good device, once in a while, to let those who have 



SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 151 

mastered a difficult lesson, especially in mathematics, turn 
themselves into teachers for the others, assigning one or 
more pupils to each pupil teacher. The effect is good upon 
all. The explanation of the young mind may strike home 
surer than anything that the adult could offer. 

As everywhere else, routine is a deadly element when it 
enters the class room. As soon as pupils can reckon what 
is to be done, they glide calmly into indifference 
and let the recitation go on without their inter- Monotony 
est. Constant alertness is necessary to keep a 
class awake. Expedients must be invented, and the teacher 
must appear to the class "new every morning." 

A minister who was considered very successful and inspir- 
ing was asked how he held the attention of the congregation 
to his sermons. 

"There is nothing new to preach to them," he replied. 
"The gospel is as old as Christ and Him crucified, and yet 
the message must be preached Sunday after Sunday, the 
same message, the same truth. To make it strike home, I 
strive for new and startling ways of presentation." 

The same is true in the school-room. English, geography, 
and arithmetic are more or less the same yesterday, today, 
and forever in vital principles, at least. But these must 
be taught to each succeeding generation. 

The teacher who remains long in the service has great 
need to guard against dullness and monotony in her work. 
Here the young teacher has a decided advantage. She 
brings to the work fresh enthusiasm, and often wins where 
the more experienced teacher rattles only the dry bones of 
the subject, to the terror and disgust of the children. 

Ingenuity is an important factor in a teacher's equip- 
ment. One resource after another may fail to pierce the 
clouded dullness of a child's mind. Nothing daunted, let 



152 THE TEACHER 

the teacher seek out and bring into service surrounding 

objects, a good story, anything that will do the work. 

But let her never give up until the idea that 

fulness^^' ^^^^ ^^ after comes crystal clear to the mind 

before her. 

The young mind does not readily grasp abstractions. 
None of us ever get so old that a subject may not be illu- 
minated by the concrete. All literature for teachers is full 
of suggestions for the application of the concrete. English 
has its illuminating pictures for the younger children, its 
acting of dramatic scenes for all ages. To appreciate the 
importance of this element, it is onl}^ necessary for us to 
recall how much more vivid to us are the plays of Shakes- 
peare which we have seen produced than those which we 
have merely read. 

In this attempt to arouse interest, the work should have 
variety. The method that will do one day will have no 
effect on another. Classes have moods just as people do, 
and these, carefully studied, will suggest the right method 
of reaching the mind. Whole classes will sometimes show 
excessive sensitiveness and apparent irritation. The weather 
conditions are frequently responsible for this. Let the 
cause be what it may, it calls for counteraction, and the 
teacher is the one to apply the remedy. 

A rapid fire of sharp, terse questions will often accom- 
plish the result; sometimes it must be a story, and in 
extreme cases the very work itself must be laid aside, but 
in some way the lethargy of the class must be done away 
with. 

There is a good lesson in a story told by a leading super- 
intendent, although the method might not find approval in 
these days of tender handling of the young. 

His early school days were spent in the typical district 



SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 153 

school and evidently under a forceful teacher. One particu- 
lar day a young boy had been too indolent to prepare his 
arithmetic lesson and too indifferent to give attention in 
class. When called upon to explain an example, he gave 
the teacher the common, irresponsible "I don't know how," 
and immediately lapsed into pleasant dreams as far removed 
as possible from the scene of action. 

Another boy was called upon, and he made a creditable 
recitation. 

"Henry, now explain that example," said the teacher to 
the first boy. 

Now Henry had once failed honorably and completely. 
What right had the teacher to call upon him again .^ Of 
course he had not heard a word of what had been said, and 
again answered, "I don't know." 

"Come here, Henry," said the teacher. 

The boy advanced to the platform, where the instructor 
stood slightly above him, with his forefinger shut into the 
arithmetic to keep the place. With the book, the teacher 
gave the boy two rousing blows one on each side of the 
head. 

"Now explain that example," was the order in a tone 
that demanded compliance. 

"And I explained it," said the boy, grown to manhood 
when he told the story, "and I explained it with a clearness 
never before reached in that class or in any other. I had 
simply been too lazy to think." 

This case was not an exceptional one and, although we 
may not commend the vigorous blows on the head, some- 
thing equally startling and effective must be among the 
resources of anyone who would succeed in the teaching 
profession. There must be an occasional jar sufficient to 
produce crystallization in the quiet water of the mind. 



154 THE TEACHER 

The time comes occasionally when it is best for the 
teacher to do all the work. This is especially true when a 
new topic that requires development is to be taken up. 
When this is the case, it has a good effect to announce that 
you propose to do the reciting yourself that day. This 
part of it is easy, but to recite in such a manner as will 
carry the class with you is more difficult. Without doing 
this your recitation is a failure. The test of what you have 
accomplished comes the next day, when you insist that the 
class give back to you the salient points of your recitation. 

Sometimes it is well to have no recitation at all, especially 
in mathematics, but to turn the time into a laboratory 
period. A part of good teaching lies in teaching pupils to 
study. This is best done by giving a certain amount of 
time to watching the pupils work, standing ready to help 
where help is needed, criticizing methods that are wrong, 
and on the whole getting a clear view of individual faults. 

Teachers are too prone to thrust their own ideas upon 

the minds of the pupils. Many of them become dictatorial, 

instead of following the mind of the individual 

Sie'chiid child. They decide what is best for him, and 

then proceed to cram it into his head. 

A class had been given a particular written exercise in 
which they were to draw upon their own minds for the 
sub j ect-matter. 

"Of course," said one boy, "I can think of lots of things 
to say, but they are not the things the teacher wants me to 
think, so it's all wrong." 

Read that again and then think about it. 

Another example is equally forcible. 

In a test in high school English, the question was asked : 
"Was Johnson justified in paraphrasing the twenty-third 
psalm .^" 



SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 155 

The question had been discussed in class and the teacher 
had expressed his opinion, in fact, had forced it upon the 
class. In marking the papers, to all who, following his 
instructions and agreeing with him, had said "No," he gave 
100 per cent. If they said "Yes," although they gave a 
reason for the thought that was wdthin them, and expressed 
it in good English, he marked zero. 

What right has any teacher to dictate what a child shall 
think? So long as one deals Avith ^^outh, he knows not in 
what presence he stands. 

In an English class in a certain western cit}^, there once 
sat a quiet, self-possessed lad who was not counted an 
unusual student except in the marked thoroughness with 
which he did everything he undertook. He did not write 
better than some others in the class, but he had read much 
and intelligently, had traveled, and had been allowed to 
indulge his love for outdoor life. The dreams of 3'Outh 
were his. He carried visions of shimmering brook and leap- 
ing trout and flashing wave ; of birds, and trees, and 
flowers; of floating clouds and the flash of fierce storms. 
The countless voices of "The Silent Places" had spoken to 
him, and he had learned early the language of the open. 

Since then he has written of "The Forest," "The Sea," 
and of all life in the free outdoors in a way to place him 
among the writers of note in our own generation. Such 
a one succeeds in spite of all kinds of teaching, for "Genius 
finds its own road and carries its own lamp." 

The one hope of the English teacher of that boy is that 
by conventional methods she did not seriously delay his 
progress, did not stand too much in his way with futile 
attempts to dictate where she should have found her place 
as follower and willing assistant. 

Under the present school system, it not infrequently hap- 



156 THE TEACHER 

pens that the mind of the child becomes hystericah Just 
so much ground has to be covered, and the teacher drags, 
drives, and pushes the class on to the end 
Repose which must be reached within a given time. 

The brightest pupils keep the pace with some 
degree of comfort, the average child arrives breathless, 
while the rest are pulled along, their intellectual feet 
scarcely touching the ground. The spirit of the age, the 
spirit of rush and haste, has entered the lives even of 
children. Mental repose has little place today in education. 

A class of eight bo^^s had been studying "The Lady of 
the Lake," using one of the approved edited copies. The 
poem had been anal^^zed and individual words discussed. 
The literary side had not been entirely ignored, but it had 
been subordinated to the dissecting of the composition, and 
so appeared in a somewhat scrappy way through occasional 
reading of passages by teacher or pupil. 

One day, after such a reading, one of the boys exclaimed, 

"Oh, Miss C , when we get through studying this, can't 

we read it?" 

The sequel is equall}^ pregnant with meaning. They did 
read the poem, and at the close of the first day's continuous 
reading, this same boy raised both hands and, waving them 
excitedly, exclaimed, "Oh, please don't ask us any ques- 
tions ! Let us just think about it." 

It was a sad commentary upon the hysterical condition 
of our schools, when a child had to beg for an opportunity 
to think. 

No needless obstacles should be placed in the way of the 
pupil. He should be given, as far as possible, 
ment"*^^^^' ^ clear field for the exercise of his powers. 

Besides this, the child is rare who does not 
need encouragement and whose success or failure is not 



SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 157 

more or less dependent upon sympatlietic interest. The 
case of a small boy in a settlement school in a western 
city carries a good lesson on this particular point. 

Tom was a sturdy little athlete, and won most of the 
races and other contests of strength. Through various win- 
some traits he had found his way to the heart of the teacher 
and she was always interested in his success. 

One day arrangements had been made for a foot-race. 
Several boys were to run, but everybody was sure Tom 
would win. 

The preliminaries were settled, the race started, and the 
boys were off over the course. Tom led free and clear for 
about half the distance. Then, to the surprise of every- 
body, Johnny began to gain on him. Jim was just behind 
Johnny and running vigorously. 

Tom's feet seemed to grow heavy, and Johnny steadily 
decreased the distance between them until finally he shot 
past Tom and, with a sudden spurt, gained the goal fully 
five yards in advance. Jim was close behind and he, too, 
sped over the line a little ahead of Tom. 

"What was the matter?" asked the teacher, as the de- 
feated boy came toward her with tears streaming down his 
face. 

His only answer was a sob. 

"Tell me what happened, Tom." 

Tom dug his knuckles into his eyes to dry his tears, and 
tried to tell his story. 

"I started all right, you know\" 

"Yes, you led them all for half the distance." 

"But when I got half way around, the boys began to 
call, 'Go it, Johnny, you're second !' 'Hustle, Jim, you're 
gaining !' 'Run, Johnny, run ; you're most up to him !' but 
nobody said 'Go it, Tom !' and somehow it got into my legs 



158 THE TEACHER 

r 

and they wouldn't go," and Tom, dropping to the ground 
in a heap, cried as though his heart would break. 

There is a good lesson in this for all teachers. The 
^ human being does not exist who does not need encourage- 
ment. Many failures can be charged to the fact that at the 
critical moment there was no one to say "Go it, Tom." 

An examiner of schools for one of the state universities 

recently said that in the score of schools which he visits, 

it is the exception to find a teacher holding the 

and^"nterest attention of all or even of a majority of the 

class. 

It is easy to teach one individual at a time, but, through 
class work, to teach every individual at the same time, is 
difficult. Too often the pupil who is on his feet is the only 
one who profits by the recitation ; the others sit in more or 
less patient submission — sometimes we are very grateful if 
it is patient — until the welcome bell closes the period of dull- 
ness. Two minutes is fully up to the average that can be 
allotted to each pupil in the usual recitation. If, during 
the rest of the time, the twenty or more are sitting in listless 
endurance, what a failure the recitation becomes ! What a 
travesty such a recitation is upon real teaching ! 

One of the hardest things for a new teacher to do is to 
be sensitive to inattention. It is so easy to become absorbed 
in the subject-matter under consideration that the listless- 
ness of the class will entirely escape notice. 

The teacher must learn to be sensitive to every condition 
around her, must keep the point of the lesson clearly in 
mind, must not allow" the slightest confusion in the intel- 
lectual clearness with which the subject is handled. At the 
same time she must be conscious of its effect upon every 
individual; be able to detect the very instant at which one 



SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 159 

single mind wanders from the discussion, and be inventive 
enough to bring it back. 

Do not be deceived by the eye fixed steadily upon you. 
The mind may be playing that afternoon's ball game or 
thinking over the last automobile ride, or dangling an en- 
ticing worm in some shady, rippling stream. In fact, 
the good teacher must be sensitive to countless conditions 
and influences that may w^ell and easily pass the observation 
of the ordinary individual. 

Such a teacher will feel the pull of each mind upon her 
own just as the driver of a circus wagon feels the strain of 
each of the sixteen or eighteen horses upon the reins which 
are in his hands. He knows the instant one settles back in 
harness, letting the lines fall slack as he ceases to pull his 
share of the load. 

The teacher must be like the conductor of a great 
orchestra holding each instrument to close attention to the 
score so that it will be ready to take up its part at the 
slightest signal. 

This may seem like idealism, but it is a condition pos- 
sible of attainment, and now and then a teacher does gain 
such control of a class. Even if daily results do not always 
reach this height, it is the standard that should constantly 
be held, for results do not outrun ideals. 

Pupils should be trained to follow closely the trend of 
the recitation; trained to that alert attention which drives 
each interrogation straight at every individual and gains 
from the particular one called upon either a correct answer 
or some other prompt intimation that the question has 
struck home. 

No one can place too great an estimate upon the effect 
of voice and manner on a class. There are teachers who 



160 THE TEACHER 

drone along in a monotonous, humdrum way, giving per- 
fectly lucid and scholarly explanations, asking clear-cut 

questions but spoiling the effect of what might 
Manne?"'' otherwise be good teaching by lack of forceful 

speech or compelling manner. Instead of 
keeping pupils alert and up to the mark these teachers lull 
them into gentle quietude where they can dream the hour 
pleasantly away. 

There comes to mind the picture of just such a teacher. 
Her branch was English and she was well qualified men- 
tally for the subject. She was a woman of wide reading, 
of sensitive, poetic nature, and possessed of excellent abil- 
ity. She loved her work and was devoted to her particular 
department. In spite of all this, however, her classes often 
wandered off into dreamland and she never missed them. 
With some literary favorite in her hand, she would take 
her place before the class and, in a musical, low-pitched 
voice, float off upon some poetical flight, leaving the class 
mere mortals upon a lower plane. 

In contrast to this case is that of a young man who 
taught the same subject. He, too, loved his subject, but in 
addition he had the gift of being an inspiring teacher. In 
poetic appreciation he went far, but somehow he never left 
the class behind him. This was the more remarkable, as the 
class was all boys. 

No matter how intelligent they ma}^ be, it is unfortu- 
nately true that boys are riot addicted to the reading habit, 
and when they do read it is not the masterpieces of English 
literature. Yet in a surprisingly short time this man had 
even the least intellectually inclined pupil interested in some 
great writer. One boy had never read at all and no one 
thought he had anything in him to which the finer subtleties 
of a poet would appeal, but he became intensely interested 



SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 161 

in Shakespeare. The teacher read to him with an insistent, 
modulated, sympathetic voice. Under this inspiration, the 
boy read play after play with absorbing interest and appre- 
ciation. 

Another teacher was talking with the boy about his read- 
ing and mentioned his own delight in a certain play. His 
remark elicited this spontaneous response from the boy: 
"That's all right, but I tell you, Hamlet's got 'em all 
skun to death." 

His English may be open to criticism, but who shall say- 
that he had not some appreciation of the master when he 
reached such a conclusion just from his own reading and 
held it with really deep feeling .^^ 

The two cases are extreme ones, but there is wide range 
of educational dullness lying between them. Only now and 
then does a teacher possess the unusual charm which be- 
longed to the young man ; only occasionally is a teacher so 
lost to surroundings as to let a class get entirely away from 
her as in the case first cited. But in every recitation, if 
voice and manner of teacher are not forceful and attractive, 
there is bound to be much waste energy, much inability to 
reach with power the entire class. 

A boy once aptly characterized this type of teaching, and 
in the story there is a whole volume of unwritten pedagogy. 

He was in an algebra class reciting to a young man 
who was really an exceptional teacher in many ways, but 
very calm, sometimes to the extent of appearing indif- 
ferent. He was master of his subject, clear in his teach- 
ing, and insistent in his demand for good work. 

The boy in question went to the principal asking for 
transfer to another section under another teacher. When 
asked the reason he gave a striking reply. 

"Well," he said, "you know, I'm kind of dull and stupid, 



16^ THE TEACHER 

and while Mr. A Is all right and a good teacher, and I 
like him, you see, Mr. B hollers louder." 

Mr. B's manner of "hollering" did. not consist entirely 
of shouting at a class, although he could do that when 
necessary, but he was a forceful, picturesque teacher, who 
kept every member of his class wide awake al] the time, 
and failure tlicre was almost unknown. 

A large part of the inefficiency of all work can be charged 
to the fact that the teacher fails to "holler" loud enough 
to arouse the minds of the class. There are more ways, 
too, of "hollering" than by raising the voice; in fact, this 
should be resorted to only in extreme cases. One of the 
most effective mathematics teachers spoke rarely in class, 
never raised his voice above a low conversational tone; yet 
by some peculiar power all his own he could hold a class 
of forty or more in close and comprehensive communica- 
tion with his own mind. They followed his guidance and 
direction perfectly and the progress made in ever}^ recita- 
tion would be beyond the belief of the ordinar}^ teacher. 

The close of a recitation should be reached with the 
topic for the day well rounded to completeness. It should 
be like the close of a good story which comes 
Recitation*^^^ out pleasantly with a clear picture of all the 
characters before the mind. If there is turmoil 
at the end, if the topic has not become clear, if a part of 
the lesson has not been well covered, then something is 
wrong, either in the assignment or in the matter of class 
handling. 

The recitation-rooms upon whose boards examples are 
left with wrong results or which reveal incorrect processes, 
are proof that poor teaching has been done that day. It is 
not always possible to take up in class the explanation of 
every example or the correction of every sentence, but the 



SPIRIT OF THE RECITATION 163 

trained eye of the teacher must know what is right and 
what is wrong. If there is not going to be time for full 
discussion of everything that has been put upon the board 
a quick noting that this or that is wrong, indicating the 
fact by a forceful mark which allows no mistaken idea con- 
cerning it, will correct the wrong impression. 

Freedom of speech and thought in class is earnestly to 
be sought after, but that freedom, while seeming unre- 
strained, should never slip the leash of the teacher's guiding 
mind. She must know where the discussion is going, and 
how far it may be allowed to wander and yet be rounded 
up to right conclusions before the class is dismissed. 

An interesting example of a rounded recitation is fur- 
nished by a wise teacher of literature who used the dramatic 
element. Each year he read aloud to his class ]\Iarlowe's 
"Faust." He knew the play so well that by retarding or 
accelerating his reading he could keep within such limits as 
he pleased. He never failed of a sensation when he timed 
his reading so that the bell rang just at the instant when, in 
the play, the clock strikes twelve and the powers of darkness 
come to claim the soul of Faust. 

There is one power possessed by the best teachers which 
is almost too subtle to discuss or to explain, but it is a 
large factor in the success of many efficient ^^^^ 
instructors. That power is the ability to make p^;;^^^"^' 
every pupil in the class feel that the teacher is 
conscious of him every minute, not in a watchful way, but 
with an understanding, companionable interest. 

In general company, if something brilliant is said, some- 
thing that stirs our interest, we instinctively glance with 
sympathetic appreciation at the individual there whom we 
know best or from whom we are sure of a comprehending 
responsive look. 



164 THE TEACHER 

Something akin to this has its place in the class-room. It 
is possible to make a pupil see from the expression upon 
your face that you understand him, although he may be 
answering your question in a stumbling manner. The 
sympathetic teacher, by a glance of the eye, a lift of the 
hand, sometimes by an aside that reaches onty the ears for 
which it was intended, can keep half a dozen pupils actively 
interested in the recitation while the voice of but one is 
audible. 

This, too, should help in determining the mark of indi- 
viduals for the day. The true appreciation of the various 
members of the class will make each one feel his own per- 
sonal relation to the teacher. There are possibilities for 
countless intellectual secrets and quiet understandings, all 
of which add to the power of the teacher. The relation 
will be different with each pupil, but the bond will be strong 
just in proportion as it becomes personal. 

In the presentation of the subject-matter to a class and 
in the treatment of the class, the personality of the teacher 
speaks powerfully. 

Above ever3^thing else a teacher should be inspiring, 
should possess the power to arouse interest in the class and 
to stir every individual to a desire for knowledge. Who- 
ever has watched schools critically will readily admit the 
force of this remark. How the pupil drags his unwilling 
steps to recitation under one teacher! How he goes with 
eager haste to the class-room of another ! Strange to say, 
the one who arouses the greatest interest is not always the 
one of highest scholastic attainments ; it is the one with 
effective personality. 



CHAPTER XII 

SOME TECHNICALITIES OF THE 
RECITATION 

Schools are differently organized: some upon the class 
principle; others upon the departmental. Under the for- 
mer method, a certain number of pupils is assigned 
to each teacher, and she does all the work in ^ 

Organization 

all subjects, looking after the general discipline °^ *^®, 
as well. 

Under the departmental system, several grades are assem- 
bled in one room, in charge of one teacher, while the class 
work is largely or entirely done in recitation rooms. 

There is much to be said in favor of both plans, and yet 
something is lost through each one. 

Recitations in the same room where others are studying 
offer more or less distraction, but this very distraction may 
be educational. 

A lazy student, with no accurate foundation in language, 
was once being tutored in Csesar. His recitations were ill- 
prepared, and he used all the ingenuity that such a young 
man possesses to get the teacher to do the work for him. 
She was amazed, however, to see how well he knew the story 
of the Gallic wars. He was familiar with every phase of 
the campaign, knew the geography of the country, and 
was willing to talk without end of the clever generalship of 
Caesar. The teacher tested him thoroughly on his knowl- 
edge, and was forced to admit that he was far more accurate 

165 



166 THE TEACHER 

and had more interest than the pupils in her own classes. 
She asked him how it all came about. 

He had been, for a year just before coming to her, in 
one of the best schools for boys in the east. There he had 
sat in the room where the class in advance of him recited 
Caesar. They evidently had an inspiring teacher, because 
this boy, who was too indolent to study unless driven to it, 
drank in eagerly everything that was said in class. 

Where the class is kept to itself much of the inspiration 
gained by listening to advanced work is lost. A large num- 
ber of the children in public schools come from homes 
which furnish no intellectual inspiration and where the 
parents have no idea of what is good for their children, or 
what the schools have to offer. The pupils are compelled 
to find this out for themselves. If their vision is limited by 
the four walls of their own grade, where will they gain this 
inspiration ? 

There is a definite educational value in living in the 
atmosphere of things a little beyond present attainments. 
The effect of this is especially noticeable in high school 
work. Seeing upon the board fragments of French, Latin, 
or German, an occasional figure in geometry, or some scien- 
tific diagram, is a stimulus to intellectual curiosity, and, 
besides, it gives the young person the habit of thinking 
that, in the natural course of events, these subjects must be 
taken up. Without doubt this unconscious influence has 
helped toward keeping many a young person longer in 
school because of these vistas opening before him. 

The student-like attitude is supposed to demand quiet, 
and much stress is put upon this where the organization 
supplies a room especially for study. 

No doubt there is something in this, but not all that is 
claimed for it. The well-trained mind can study anywhere. 



SOME TECHNICALITIES 167 

Power of concentration sets up barriers against all kinds 
of external disturbances. Possibly it is the duty of the 
school to give training in this power of concentration, 
rather than to render it unnecessary. 

No matter how carefully any given system may be 
planned or worked out, conditions will never be ideal. 
Whatever the organization of the school, it will never be 
entirely satisfactory, and so it becomes the business of 
the teacher to accept it such as it is and then proceed 
to get results in spite of conditions that she might wish to 
change. The good teacher will succeed no matter what 
the environment, and failure should be charged up, not 
to externals, but to lack of power on the part of the 
teacher herself. 

If this principle could be burned into the understanding 
of every individual who enters the profession, and the 
energ}^ that is lost upon futile fault-finding be conserved 
to good work, there would be fewer incompetents besieging 
teachers' agencies for positions. It is comparatively easj^ 
to succeed when conditions are right ; to succeed when they 
are not to the liking, proclaims the master. Instead of 
causing discouragement and irritation, difficulties should 
put the individual upon his mettle to drive them into satis- 
factory conclusions. 

No matter what the organization of the school in the 
particulars suggested, the principles governing the recita- 
tion should be the same. 

Coming to the recitation itself, certain technicalities, cer- 
tain formalities, demand attention. 

The size of the class is usually determined by someone 
besides the teacher who hears the recitation. That, how- 
ever, does not shift the responsibility entirel}^ If the class 
is too large for efficient work, the state of things should be 



168 THE TEACHER 

reported to the responsible person at once. If that is done, 

there may be, on the part of the one having a full view of 

the situation, some way of adjusting the num- 

ciass°^ ^^^^- I^ ^^^^* ^^ o^^ o^ t^^ question, then 

the teacher must wrestle with the difficulty. 
Try first, through legitimate channels, to better the con- 
ditions; failing there, do the best that can be done under 
the unfavorable conditions to get good results. 

Punctuality demands constant vigilance. Left to itself, 

a class may easily form the habit of dragging leisurely into 

class-room or to recitation seats, take its time 

Punctuality ^^ getting seated, and bring its attention to the 

business in hand only when compelled to. 

The teacher will get nothing more than she demands, 
and in the matter of punctuality too much patience is a 
mistake. It should be understood from the first day that 
the recitation begins promptly at the appointed time, and 
that the class is expected not only to be in place but to 
be ready for work on the instant. 

It is equally important that the teacher establish the 
same standards for herself, being always ready to receive 
the class at the appointed time and to begin the work on 
the instant. No time should be wasted in taking the roll. 
Each member should have his seat so that a glance wiU 
determine the absentees. 

The individual recitation of boy or girl becomes a more 
or less formal affair and should be treated as such. 

Pupils should be trained to stand firmly 
Position upon both feet in good position, to stand free 

from desk or seat, leaning upon nothing and 
depending upon nothing for support but the poise of their 
own muscles. This may seem a trifle, but, like other trifles, 
becomes an important part of a desirable whole. 



SOME TECHNICALITIES 169 

The same care should be taken in the way a child sits 
in recitation. This will largely right itself if the recita- 
tion is thoroughly inspiring. The child who is interested 
will nevei be found slipped low in his seat or leaning upon 
his neighbor. Toss some unusually interesting thought 
unexpected!}^ upon a class and the first intimation that it 
has struck home will be in a general straightening of backs, 
a spontaneous leaning toward the center of interest, the 
increased muscular tension that goes with alertness. 

This works both ways. A good position, the natural 
position of attention, is not without its effect in securing 
that attention. It will not do all, but it will help, and 
should therefore be insisted upon. Besides, this is not 
merely a matter of school discipline, but a matter of health 
and good form as well. A proper sitting position and a 
good carriage are important parts of good breeding. 

It may be superfluous to say anything about the method 
of calling upon pupils to recite. This would certainly be 
true if so much wooden work were not con- 
stantly in evidence. It ought not to be nee- upon"pupiis 
essary to warn teachers against the stupidity 
of calling upon pupils in any particular order, either 
alphabetically or in order of seating, but there are teachers 
still in the ranks so short-sighted as to follow this habit. 

To avoid this, others use cards, each bearing the name 
of a pupil. While this may be an improvement upon the 
former method, it is a stupid way, takes too much time, 
and invariably diverts the attention of the teacher. 

The teacher must constantly be in control of the situa- 
tion and so bound by no hard and fast system. Sometimes 
the development of the recitation demands that one pupil 
be brought repeatedly to his feet ; again, questions follow- 
ing in rapid succession should be so distributed that mem- 



170 THE TEACHER 

bers of the class can never guess who will be next up ; in 
fact, whatever is necessary on any given day to keep the 
class alert and fully up to the mark, must be the method 
used, and that method should vary from day to day. 

A clear, distinct articulation is a part of the training 

due a child. He should never be allowed to slur his words, 

to glide over important sounds, or to mumble 

Articulation in an indistinct, slovenly manner. Equally to 

be avoided are the blatant, strident tones that 

belong so markedly to the uncultivated. 

Tone, quality, and pitch of voice are a legitimate part 
of education, and it makes no difference whether the sub- 
ject-matter is smooth, melodious French, clear-cut science, 
definite mathematics, or the gliding periods of literature, 
the demand in recitation for distinct articulation in a well- 
modulated voice is an intrinsic part of right training. 

Good English is another requisite. The tendency of all 

young people is to speak laconically, using only such words 

as are really necessary to convey a slight 

EngMsh inkling of the idea floating vaguely in the 

head. 

"I know it, but I can't say it," is a frequent remark 
heard in the class-room. The stock answer to this remark 
is, "If you really knew, you could tell it." 

That is not true in the sense in which the average teacher 
means it. It is possible that the knowledge may not be 
very clear in the mind, may not be comprehensive, yet the 
answer, to the mind of the child, is essentially correct. He 
does know to his own satisfaction, but is not yet trained to 
rapidly transfer ideas to spoken language. A part of the 
duty of the recitation is to give him this training. 

In studying his lesson the pupil should be taught to keep 
constantly in mind the fact that he will be expected in class 



SOME TECHNICALITIES 171 

to give a clear, concise discussion of what is before him on 
the printed page or what was brought out in class on some 
previous day. It is not enough to gain a mental concept 
just while the idea is before him in the book. That may 
seem very vivid at the time, but it has a strange trick of 
becoming vague and clouded by a thousand doubts as soon 
as the presence of the teacher is substituted for the pres- 
ence of the book. 

The young teacher will not readily grasp this condition. 
She will know that on the presentation of a particular topic 
to the class, on the explanation of some obscure point, the 
class understood it. That comprehension may have been 
perfectly clear at the time, for it is comparatively easy to 
follow the leading strings of another mind. After an 
exceptionally lucid explanation, which the class seems to 
grasp with interest, the teacher would be greatly surprised 
if she should ask the very brightest pupil in the class to 
reproduce at once what has just been so clearly presented. 
In most cases the result would be halting and unsatisfac- 
tory. There will be evidence that the mind has followed 
faithfully the explanation, but much of the detail will have 
vanished from memory. How much more will this be true 
when the activities of twenty-four hours have intervened 
before the topic is again brought up for discussion.^ 

Absorbing interest centers around the final marks which 
are the visible estimate of the pupil's standing. Close com- 
parison of each child's marks with those of 
his associates is constantly going on ; there is Marking 
an equally insistent comparison of a teacher's 
judgment of a recitation with that of the one making it; 
there is also the unfailing desire for high marks which some- 
times exists independently of merit. In view of all this, 
although the mark won is not the most important purpose 



172 THE TEACHER 

of a recitation, it becomes imperative that all markings be 
as nearly just as possible. 

Man}^ elements enter into the final estimate for each day. 
There may have been written work to hand in. This is to 
be considered not only with reference to its own complete- 
ness and correctness but for its importance in relation to 
the rest of the assignment. 

Then comes the class record. To give a pupil a per- 
fect mark just because he happens to recite well upon one 
question which fell to his lot early in the hour is not a 
measure of the full period for him. His attention during 
the remainder of the time should be taken into account, his 
ability to go on with the recitation at any point, the expres- 
sion of his face, indicating alertness or the contrary, should 
all be considered. 

Here, too, unthinking, parrot-like repetition has to be 
guarded against. A child may give a slow, stumbling 
answer — slow because he is carefully and thoughtfully pick- 
ing his way through a new mystery — and yet make a 
better recitation than the one to whom the correct verbal 
answer comes "trippingly on the tongue," with no thought 
back of it. The better mark belongs to the former, for he 
has gone forward a little way with added strength, with 
increased power. 

The mark of each pupil for the day should represent not 
only the particular showing which he made in formal reci- 
tation, but should take into account his entire attitude for 
the full time of the recitation period; should take into 
consideration, so far as possible to obtain the information, 
the faithfulness of his preparation, and, above all else, 
should be a measure of the power which he has gained. 

The sensitive teacher will have a picture of all this in her 
mind for each individual at the close of the recitation. 



SOME TECHNICALITIES 173 

This may seem to demand something like the power of 
S nd fght but good teachers have to be thus endowed, 
^n Loi ones see only what lies near the surface. 

°'r t£rf:.'assig:t t.. ne.t day's lesson will vary 
.ith Icll^^^tances. tome teachers have th, invariable hab.t 
of living out the next lesson at the openmg _^,^^ ,^_. 
„f t1.e recitation, with the idea of not allowmg Assi.n.na 
a clear assignment to be crowded out at the 
close This immediately puts a hard and fast rule upon 
ever;body Perhaps the amount allotted f or th.s part.cu- 
Ilr C has not been wisely apportioned, and the close of 
;: pe'riod may leave much that is -tal st.l undjs^^^^^^^^^^^ 
With every possible forethought, unexpected difficulties wUl 
arise and must be dealt with. 

Too little work may have been apportioned and the ks 
son of the day easily covered before the time i up. The 
remaining tin^ should not be wasted, but the class pushed 
on "othe pages that are still unturned. Not a moment 
11 be thrown away in allowing the class to mark t>me, 
or in iust waiting for the bell. 

All these things demand that the class work be left 
entt ly ad ustabl!. No one can tell, until the rectat.on .s 
neariy over, what kind of assignment will be wisest It may 
be necessar; to require a repetition of the very lesson of 
Jhe daT a dass m'ay do better or worse than was expected, 



174 THE TEACHER 

and tomorrow's work should depend upon the results ob- 
tained today. 

The close of the period, then, becomes the natural time 
for giving out the following lesson, and that should be 
done in the light of what the hour just past has brought 
forth. 

In the preparation of the next lesson assigned, it is the 
teacher's duty to avoid all unnecessary waste and its attend- 
ant discouragement. 
New"work* Presumably the teacher comes to the class 

each day prepared not only upon the lesson 
of the day, but with a clear knowledge of what is to follow, 
and a mental picture of the difficulties which the new work 
presents. Some of these the class should be able to master 
alone. All such are better left to them, for it is never good 
teaching to do for a young person anything which he can 
do for himself. 

If preceding study has already pointed out the w^ay to 
new achievement, then the class can be left to its own 
devices. If it has not, then it devolves upon the teacher 
to open the way for effective study upon the next day's 
lesson. He should not clear up every bit of underbrush 
and lay an asphalt pavement for the indolent, but he must 
point out the sure, direct way and so mark the path that 
it cannot be mistaken. The pupil should not be left to 
wander through an unbroken forest of difficulties. 

Once in a senior algebra class a boy said that he had 
spent his entire evening study time upon the set of exam- 
ples for the next day. Forty-five minutes should have been 
ample. Deducting that amount, he had toiled an hour and 
a quarter without results. Investigation proved that 
the teacher, only, was to blame. 

The boy's difficulty was the result of one mistake, a mis- 



SOME TECHNICALITIES 175 

take perfectly natural for anyone to make at his stage of 
development. His teacher should have foreseen this, and 
in two or three minutes' lucid discussion in class, have 
eliminated that possibility. As a good guide, she should 
have put up a sign post at the parting of the ways to turn 
him in the right direction. He would have been saved 
two hours' blind groping, getting him nowhere after all. 
Instead, an hour's clear study would have brought satis- 
factory results and increased his own mental self-respect. 
Algebraically, he would have been better off, and would 
have been saved much needless nervous strain. 

The recitation showed that others had ended in the same 
pitfall, so that day the teacher was compelled to do what 
she ought to have been wise enough to do the day before. 
By her failure to lead the way at the proper time, the entire 
class suffered delay of twenty-four hours. By poor teaching 
she had cheated them all. 

It is common to charge all faults in teaching to young, 
inexperienced teachers, but in this particular those long in 
the work are equally apt to fail. The subject-matter 
becomes so familiar that it is sometimes difficult to realize 
that anyone can find trouble with what is to them so simple. 
The young teacher is nearer her own student days, finds it 
necessary to make a more minute preparation for a day's 
work, and not infrequently encounters troubles of her own. 
With these fresh in mind, she is more inclined to be watch- 
ful for the pitfalls likely to ensnare the class, for they are 
probably the very ones into which she has fallen. 

The mass of papers cr^ang for correction is a killing 
thing in this business. A man noted for his 
success in a normal school once said that the pape^rs*'"^ 
really good teacher would never allow this to 
become a burden. According to him, there were ways of 



176 THE TEACHER 

accomplishing right results without suicide by way of blue 
pencil or red ink pen. 

There is some truth in this, but a certain amount of real 
drudgery in this direction is inevitable. 

There are two or three different results to be gained 
from written work prepared outside of class. These differ- 
ent objects ought to be kept clearly in mind in the demands 
made. 

In language work, in mathematics, and other things that 
require the application of accurate principles, the amount 
assigned should be very definite. It then becomes the 
teacher's business to look these papers over very carefully, 
marking all mistakes. 

Again, this work on the part of the instructor becomes 
utterly void of value unless the pupils make afterwards 
an equally critical study of their mistakes and then cor- 
rect them. If, after long, laborious correcting of papers, the 
pupil simply looks at his mark and, ignoring the mistakes, 
tosses the paper into the waste basket, the teacher might 
far better have saved her strength. Her work has been 
thrown away with the paper, and an opportunity of teach- 
ing value lost. 

Occasionally it is well to let the pupils exchange papers 
and correct each other's, under direction. This, however, 
is an expedient that should not often be resorted to, for by 
repetition it loses its effect. 

Sometimes nothing better can be done than to have each 
pupil keep his own paper and, putting himself in a critical 
attitude, make his own corrections, still under the direction 
of the teacher. The teaching value of this exercise can be 
made very great if the right relation of confidence exists. 
The class must be in sympathy with the teacher and really 
eager to make progress. 



SOME TECHNICALITIES 177 

There are times when it is wise to give a written task to 
be done out of class, of such a nature that the papers do not 
need critical examination. When this is true, collect the 
papers and then tell the pupils frankly that the work was 
assigned for the sake of giving them a certain amount of 
practice in a particular direction ; that it is not your plan 
to mark the papers carefully, but to give them a general 
review; that, if they wish to see the papers again, and 
there are a few who always do, you will save such as are 
requested, but that you will destroy the others as soon as 
you are through with them. 

There are teachers who repeatedly ask for papers and 
then throw them into the waste basket, unread. Others 
mark carelessly and then return the papers. One case is 
authentic where a pupil, knowing this habit of carelessness, 
ventured to hand in a blank paper, conventionally folded 
and properly endorsed. The next day he got it back, 
marked a hundred. 

Above everything else, be absolutely honest with the class 
in this particular. Let them understand that when you 
ask for written work under certain conditions, you expect 
to go over that work critically and shall demand from them 
later a correction of all their mistakes. When the condi- 
tions are different, or the purpose different, take them into 
your confidence ; they will not abuse it. 

Some teachers are note-book mad. They require pupils 
to have and to keep note-books in every possible subject. 
Like many things, this may be valuable in 
certain places and ver37^ objectionable in others. Note Book 

There is great danger in allowing young 
people to form the habit of keeping too much in visible 
form and so not depending upon their mental resources. 
Increased power, the final purpose of education, is thus lost. 



178 THE TEACHER 

Pupils are sometimes allowed and requested to keep exam- 
ple books into which all the examples of each day are 
copied. This is certainly worse than time wasted. The 
purpose of solving examples is not to get a solution in 
fascinating form in a neatly kept note-book, but to gain 
power, not merely to solve this example or set of examples, 
but power to go at something more difficult and to do the 
new thing more easily. 

Besides the bad effects in the matter of good teaching, 
these methods often become time wasters. It is so much 
easier to use the fingers than to use the brain. Much time 
can be thus wasted that should go into vigorous study. 

In this matter the teacher should not lose sight of the 
value of strengthening the impression in any particular 
direction, by going over it even by copying, but it is easy 
to overestimate this effectiveness when applied to note- 
books. 

If the children have a series of example-books to refer 
to in review, they lamely lean upon them and lose all the 
training they might get, to say nothing of the wrongful 
use of these examples by pupils who never get quite strong 
enough to do entirely honest work. Think carefully before 
you allow anything in the way of needless note-books to 
find their place in the school-room. 

The subject of the technique of the recitation should 
not be left without a few words especially for high 

school teachers. 
Methods There is one error into which the inexperi- 

enced are apt to fall. This danger is increas- 
ing as more and more high schools are demanding college 
graduates for all positions. These teachers come into the 
schools fresh from their own college work, w^ith the instruc- 
tion of some favorite professor standing out clearly In 



SOME TECHNICALITIES 179 

mind. They may bring certificates of full courses in 
pedagogy, but they do not bring experience. 

Such a teacher's greatest danger is in forgetting his 
environment. The first thing that he should fix clearly in 
his mind is that a college and a secondary school are two 
different places. The method which his favorite professor 
used with such success upon him and his associates has no 
place in the work before him. His professor dealt with the 
trained intellect; he is to meet the young, eager but rela- 
tively untrained mind. The purpose of a secondary school 
is not to furnish college instruction. The greatest fault 
of these inexperienced college graduates is their attempt 
to transfer to the high schools college methods in teaching. 

There comes to mind the picture of a certain class in 
English History. The teacher was an unusually bright, 
attractive young man, but he had yet to learn that he was 
in a high school and not in college. He adopted the lecture 
method, and as he talked, the class were all busy trying to 
keep up with him with fountain pen or pencil. Their study 
time was spent in getting these notes into shape. At inter- 
vals the note-books were handed in and the teacher approved 
or disapproved according to appearance. Nobody ever 
suspected him of reading them carefully enough to have 
any idea of their contents. The class was orderly and 
attentive, and he was satisfied with what was being done. 
When the first examination came, what a fall was there! 
He could not understand what was wrong until a teacher 
of experience pointed out the fact that he was working in 
a secondary school. 



CHAPTER XIII 
EXAMINATIONS 

There has been endless discussion over the question of 
examinations and a decided difference of opinion touching 
their place in a school system. 

Some administrations hold tenaciously to them, examin- 
ing rigidly and often. Experience has led others to abolish 
them entirel}^ arguing that the nervous strain is too great 
upon the child, and insisting that the examination is not, 
after all, an honest measure of the child's attainment. 

On the other hand it is claimed that examinations are a 
valuable school exercise ; that they are a means of classify- 
ing and keeping within call any knowledge that has been 
presented during a limited period either of weeks or months ; 
that the ability to retain and express clearly the salient 
points in a given subject should constitute a part of a 
child's training. 

Besides this, the demands of many of the best colleges 
for entrance examinations make necessary some sort of prep- 
aration for taking them. This affects all secondary schools, 
of course, but has a stronger bearing upon private schools, 
where the majority of the students expect to go to colleges 
requiring such examinations. 

What the policy of the school shall be in this direction, 
of course, an individual teacher does not have to determine, 
but each teacher should study the question carefully, watch- 
ing the system used in the school, giving honest testimony 

180 



EXAMINATIONS 181 

to the evils of the method as well as to its advantages, and 
^^athering data for an opinion. The practice of a school 
is finally settled by this same careful study on the part of 
all its teachers, resulting eventually in a well-defined fac- 
ulty opinion, usually the final court of appeal. 

Many schools have the habit, beginning in the lower 
grades, of excusing from examinations all whose standings 
during the term or quarter or semester, as the Excusing 
division may be, have reached a certain average. Ej^mina- 
This has its effect in spurring many pupils on *'°"^ 
to strong effort to maintain such a standard. The ambition 
to gain such distinction has a powerful influence upon cer- 
tain temperaments, and there will be in almost every class 
one or two who rarely, if ever, have to submit to the ordeal. 
To escape this they must do from day to day rather more 
than excellent work. They are the pupils who shine always 
and among their fellows are familiarly called "sharks." 

A young girl had for years attained this distinction in 
her class, had gone through all the grades without having 
to take examination. For some reason, the first year that 
she was in the high school, it was decreed that everyone 
must take examinations at the end of the first semester. 
This girl went into them with perfect confidence in her 
ability to pass far up among the best, if not at the very 
head of the class. Her teachers felt the same confidence. 
When the reports were made out, while she w on a passing 
mark, her standing was among the lowest of those who 
passed at all. 

She did not need to see her marks to realize that she had 
come close to the failing point. She was a good judge of 
her own achievements, and knew at the close of the exami- 
nation that she had not acquitted herself with credit. 

The teachers were greatly surprised at the outcome, but 



182 THE TEACHER 

both they and the girl learned a good lesson. When the 
returns were all in, she went to the woman in charge of the 
grade, with an unusual request. 

"I want to ask," she began, "that as long as I am in this 
school, no matter what my class standing is, I shall never 
be excused from a single examination that the others take. 
I thought I was doing good work, but something must be 
wrong when I write such examination papers as I did this 
time in all subjects. I found that I almost knew a lot of 
things, but didn't know them well enough to write clearly 
about them." 

It is one thing to make good daily showing, to recite upon 
a limited portion of a subject, even to do fairly well in 
oral recitation upon unexpected review, but to have knowl- 
edge so classified, so related, that it can be put into good 
English within a limited time is another matter. 

Like everything else, a compromise between the two ex- 
tremes of examining everybody and examining nobody ought 

to give the desirable middle course. 
c?urse'^^'^ This problem has been carefully studied and 

experimented upon in a certain school which 
deals with all grades, from the kindergarten to the college. 
The school was for years under the management of the 
same principal and most of the teachers had been long in 
their positions. This gave excellent opportunity for ex- 
periment, especially as the school population was not a 
floating one; many took their entire preparatory course in 
that school. 

The administration was such that if one plan did not 
give desirable results, it was at once changed for some other 
which the teachers thought might be better. After testing 
several plans that proved unsatisfactory, one was evolved 
which seemed to meet favorably all conditions. It has been 
used for some time without demand for modification. 



EXAMINATIONS 183 

The school year, in this case, of thirty-six weeks, is 
divided into four quarters, with examinations at the close 
of each quarter. At the first quarterly examination in each 
semester, every pupil in the school, regardless of rank or 
condition, is examined in every study. This gives exami- 
nations to everybody at the first and third quarters. 

The effect upon both school and teachers is excellent. 
Each finds his own failings and takes the measure of the 
work done. 

At the second and fourth quarters, all who passed the 
former examination and have maintained a high class stand- 
ing through the second and fourth quarters are excused 
from these examinations. 

According to this method, the good effect of excusing 
is gained and perhaps offered as often as is desirable, while 
no one loses entireh^ the educational value of examinations. 

Examinations are not to be taken lightly by either teacher 
or pupil. Both need to make careful preparation for them, 
but if especial care is given by either one, it 
should be by the teacher. Character 

, . , , p , . o^ Questions 

The mistake is often made of expecting too 
much of the children in a given time. If the individual 
teacher makes out her own questions, she should give them 
very careful study. In some schools they are either fur- 
nished by the principal or else come from some central 
office. In such case the work of the teacher is somewhat 
different. She has no responsibilit}^ in the preparation of 
the questions, but she has then to watch her own teaching 
very carefully. Presumably these questions will be fair, 
general ones, presupposing a clear knowledge on the part 
of the children of the ground covered. 

When a teacher prepares her own questions, a careful 
mental review of the work covered is her first step. The 



184 THE TEACHER 

important things should stand out clearly in her own mind 
and the subject should be well classified. Some people take 
this attitude unconsciously, having what might be termed 
a scientific mind, one which grasps salient points readily. 
A good set of questions should reveal a good sense of values, 
that sense which brings into prominence the vital points of 
the subject and does not bury them under a mass of unim- 
portant allied matter. 

The purpose of an examination is neither to trip the child 
over some unexpected obstacle, nor to bring him up before 
some obscure, unimportant fact that may have been casually 
mentioned in the course of some recitation, but which, like 
a parenthetical sentence, might be omitted without affecting 
the main point under discussion. If the teaching has been 
well done, of course, many of these details will cling in 
the mind, but many more will have passed into forgetful- 
ness. 

Having settled upon the points to be brought out in 

any particular examination, the questions should be stated 

clearly, but without any suggestion as to what 

QuVstions^* the answer should be. The clear statement of 

a question is just as much a test of the teacher 

as a correct answer is a test of the pupil. 

Every question should be so put that the pupils who have 
made reasonable preparation for the work will know what 
it means, although they ma}^ not always be able to answer 
it fully or lucidly. That is their affair ; the clear statement 
of the question is the teacher's. 

A certain professor in one of our great universities once 
approached an assistant in high glee. 

"I have just thought out a way," he exclaimed, "in which 
you can ask that question so that I don't believe a single 
student in the class can answer it." 



EXAMINATIONS 185 

Such an attitude is to be shunned. The purpose of an 
examination is not to floor the pupils, but to bring into 
clear form some measure of their work as well as that of the 
teacher. 

After the questions have been prepared, careful estimate 
of the time required to answer them should be made. Older 
teachers in particular should watch this, for , . 

1 . . 1 p Judging 

they are apt to be smners m the matter of Length of 
. . 1 . . , . Questions 

givmg too long exammations. Subjects have 
become so familiar to them that they forget the time when 
they, too, found arithmetic, geography, and English diffi- 
cult. 

A certain teacher of mathematics found 't helpful occa- 
sionally to take the very examination prepared for the 
class, and time herself upon it. She was always surprised 
to find that it took her longer than she had supposed it 
would to do the work. For the teacher, such a test means 
merely a mechanical answering of questions without thought 
or stud}'. The subject-matter is perfectly familiar, and the 
only time required is that needed for the manual labor of 
putting the results on paper. Even this will invariably 
overrun what the teacher had supposed necessary. 

The child cannot write nearly as rapidly as the mature 
person, and liberal allowance should be made for this differ- 
ence. Then the pupil must find his way slowly through 
what has been presented to his mind, and select what is 
necessary at this particular time. Sometimes he will go 
wrong at first and later see the light. All this takes more 
time than the teacher realizes until she turns her attention 
to it. When she does, she will not fail to modify the length 
of the examination. 

The order of questions has great effect upon children tak- 
ing an examination. If the first questions are especially 



186 THE TEACHER 

difficult, the conclusion is apt to follow that the others are 
equally so, and with this conclusion comes discouragement. 
But if the more difficult questions are left to 
Questions ^^^^ ^^^^9 ^^^^ mind is tired when they are 
reached, and the pupil then fails to do 
himself justice. 

"Well begun is half done," applies excellently here. If 
the child sees in the first question something that he can 
answer, he attacks the examination with couraece and zest 
for the encounter. A certain amount of impetus can be 
gained here which will have sustaining power for the more 
difficult questions which should come before this impetus 
of enthusiasm is exhausted. The last questions should again 
be among the easier ones, for the child will glance ahead, 
and if at the end he sees something that is familiar, that 
fact sustains him while he attacks the more difficult prob- 
lems. These familiar things he can meet even with a 
wearied mind, when new difficulties would mean failure. 

An examination should follow the drama in arrangement. 
Beginning at a low level of intensity, it should increase in 
strain until the climax is reached, when the difficulties should 
decrease to the last question, which, like the first, should be 
clearly within the grasp of the class. 

The questions prepared, the method of handling the class 
Is next In consideration. If possible, each pupil should have 
Presenting ^ ^^py of the questions. An immense amount 
olfestions to ^^ strain and confusion and time Is saved in this 
the c?ass wn^j. If the questions are written ©n the board, 
they cannot possibly be within easy sight of all the class. 
This necessitates craning of necks, asking of otherwise 
needless questions, inaccurate copying, and more or less 
confusion. All this Is Immediately done away with If each 
pupil has a copy of the questions on his own desk. 



EXAMINATIONS 187 

This can be very easily accomplished in these days of inex- 
pensive ways of duplication. It may take a little more of 
a teacher's time outside of school, but this is more than com- 
pensated for by the comfort of the examination period and 
the gain in the standing of the class. 

The examination should begin promptly. It is the teach- 
er's business to see that everything that she is responsible 
for is prepared in advance. The plan of seat- 
ing, if any special one is desirable, should be Promptness 
well thought out so that when the pupils appear 
there shall exist in the teacher's mind no uncertainty as to 
what she shall do. She should be so master of the situation 
that the class will feel this at once and fall naturally into 
her plan. 

When the time set for the examination has arrived, each 
pupil should be in the assigned seat with paper, pen, or pen- 
cil, and everything else needed for the test. At the stroke 
of the clock the questions should be distributed and evcrj^ 
mind should bend to the work in that peculiar hush that 
goes with intense attention. 

It now becomes part of the business of the teacher to look 
after the physical comfort of the class. This is of more 
importance than the unthinking would believe. 
Ventilation, light, and temperature are to cS?Iffor\' 
be considered. No annoying ray of sunshine 
should be allowed to strike desk or paper ; the room should 
be watched for coolness in summer and the right even tem- 
perature in winter. Each individual in the class must be 
kept in mind. Weeks of association with these same chil- 
dren will make clear the ones that need particular attention. 
Each school, each class, will present its own peculiarities; 
the teacher must be sensitive to these and ready to meet 
them. 



188 THE TEACHER 

A part of the value of an examination consists in a train- 
ing in form. The classes that are allowed to go ahead 

in a haphazard way will usually be slov- 
Importance i • n n ^ i • t ^ • 

of Good enly m form of work and careless m habits of 

Form ^ 

thought. 

The cry for individual liberty should not be greatly 
heeded here. Clear, concise form shows its influence in 
correspondingly clear thinking. 

Of course, this should not be carried to the extent of 
making the thinking wooden, and there is that danger, but 
it should be insisted upon to the extent of avoiding all 
mental confusion or mental delay in ploughing through a 
mass of formless writing or figures. As in everything else, 
just enough should be demanded. To this end a uniform 
clear heading should appear on all papers. This must be 
planned by the teacher and then insisted upon. 

Paragraphs, margins, spacing, and punctuation are 
merely a part of good English training, and are to be 
considered and demanded in every paper. 

When a chemist makes a test, he knows the particular 
thing he is seeking. An examination should have an equally 
definite aim. Clear and accurate statement of fact should 
be the objective point. Speed has a place and often needs 
especial attention. This is also true of neatness. A certain 
pleasing effect which the finished paper may have upon 
the eye is not without weight. 

Attention should be given to time. If the questions have 
been properly weighed in advance by the teacher, they will 
be fitted to the time allowed for examinations, 
of^Time^ and only in rare cases should that time limit 

be exceeded. There are always exceptional 
cases which demand consideration, but a part of the teach- 
ing value of an examination is the training in doing a 



EXAMINATIONS 189 

particular thing in a given time. For this reason the 
schedule should be closely adhered to. 

There are two classes of pupils who are inclined to get 
through an examination long before the close of the period ; 
the very poor pupils and the very bright ones. Neither of 
these should be allowed to leave the room as soon as the 
examination is finished. The bright pupil is frequently too 
sure of himself, and falls into error through careless self- 
confidence. The duller or the lazier pupil is apt to see that 
much of the examination is beyond his attainments, and so 
gives it up before trying at all. He prefers failure to 
exertion, and as he feels sure that no other result is possi- 
ble, lie sees the chance for a little additional free time 
for play. 

These difficulties may be met by stating that no paper 
will be accepted before a certain time ; what that time shall 
be should vary with the length of the examination. Under 
this plan the bright pupil will work more leisurely, and 
should he finish before the allotted time, will take the extra 
minutes to review his paper, in this way detecting mistakes 
that otherwise would escape him. 

When the indifferent pupil knows that escape is impossi- 
ble, he will sometimes keep at the task and occasionally 
really accomplish something. 

Such an instance comes to mind from a city school. A 
boy looked at the questions, thought he knew nothing about 
them, and immediately went to the desk to give in his 
paper, blank except for his name. There had been no time 
fixed for handing in papers, but the teacher grasped the 
situation and acted accordingly. 

"I cannot accept your paper now," she said. "You may 
take your seat, and, whether you work or not, I shall insist 
upon your staying here at least an hour." 



190 THE TEACHER 

Of course the boy did not like it, and spent a little time 
in sulking, which the teacher allowed him to do, uninter- 
rupted by senseless nagging. In fact, she paid no attention 
whatever to him. 

After a time, when he saw that there was no hope of 
escape, he took up the questions and evidently discovered 
something that he did know, for he began to work. It 
was not long before he was really interested, and seem- 
ingly putting his mind to the subject. At any rate, he 
ceased to glower at the teacher and did not discover when 
the penal hour was up. One by one, others finished, and 
finally he looked up in surprise to see the room nearly 
deserted. But he had something on his paper, and it was 
worth while. 

At last he came to the teacher in a very different attitude 
from his first approach, exclaiming, with pride, "There ! 
I've done something on every question. Do you suppose 
any of it is right.'"' 

"We'll see," replied the teacher, for she was wise enough 
to know that here was a situation that could not be treated 
with indifference. 

She read the paper through and, without giving it a defi- 
nite mark, saw that it would probabty be worthy of just 
passing. She did not hesitate to tell him so, and he went 
away happy and with renewed confidence in himself. She 
did not spoil it all, either, by taking to herself the credit 
of keeping him by force at the task. He knew the fact 
as well as she did, and could be trusted to draw the lesson. 

Needless confusion is to be avoided at all times, and espe- 
cially during examination. To this end there 
Confusion should be no unnecessary moving about the 
room. It should become the business of the 
teacher to wait upon the children, anticipate their wants 



EXAMINATIONS 191 

when possible, and be ready to go to individuals when sum- 
moned. All moving about the room by pupils should be 
eliminated, for the confusion is bound to be distracting. 

No two will finish their writing at the same time, but 
the pupil should not be allowed to leave just at his own 
convenience ; the comfort of the school is to be considered, 
A time should be set for the first collection of papers and 
that announced at the beginning of the examination or 
whenever the teacher can decide as to the right length of 
time. After that, periods for departure should be set, from 
ten to fifteen minutes apart. 

The papers in the hands of the teacher, the problem of 

wise and just marking next arises. There is no doubt 

whatever that children frequently suffer great 

1 1 ' ^A ;u Marking 

injustice through careless, unwise, and ill- papers 

considered marking. It is not an easy task 

to take twenty-five or more papers on the same subject, 

written by different individuals, and give a fair estimate of 

results, but this the teacher must accomplish as nearly as 

possible. 

For some time the percentage system has revealed its 
incompetence, and various other means have been devised 
and tried, but none of them prove entirely satisfactory. 
This probably will always be more or less true, but the 
difficulty must be minimized. 

No matter whether the final report be rendered to the 
children in letters, be marked "fair," '^good," or "unsatis- 
factory," or whether some system of figures be used, the 
tendency is away from close per cents which will give the 
children a basis for minute comparisons. For the teacher, 
however, in marking the papers, some accurate basis of 
comparison must be used to approach universal justice. 

The fact that a teacher is a fallible human being must 



192 THE TEACHER 

never be lost sight of for an instant. Her intentions may 
be perfectly right and her desire strong to mark all papers 
justly, but a thousand influences combine to defeat that 
purpose. Her attitude toward individuals in the class is 
not without eff*ect, although she insists, even to herself, 
that her personal feelings do not enter into the account. 
Unconsciously they have weight. 

Then her own physical and mental weariness are to be 
reckoned with. The first few papers will be marked with 
reasonable justice and upon an even scale of judgment. 
Later the strain begins to tell, and the attitude, through 
nervous irritation, becomes sharply critical and the mark- 
ing becomes unduly severe. On the other hand, weariness 
may dull the mind and vital mistakes escape notice, poor 
papers thus slipping through for more than their face 
value. In either case, the marks written upon the papers 
will not be put there with uniform, steady judgment. Under 
such a vision, they are bound to be more or less unjust. 
Everything possible should be done to guard against this 
condition. 

Knowing how difficult the situation is, it may be helpful 
to outline one method which has been tried with excellent 
results. 

After the questions are made out, and before the time 
for examination, a careful valuation should be set upon 
them, and a marking key blocked out. This key gives the 
list of the class with ruled space for marking each ques- 
tion. The value to be given each question is placed at the 
top of the proper column. If the question is divided 
into parts, or the answer has various natural divisions, these 
should be indicated and the partial value fixed for each. 
The following form may be suggestive: 



EXAMINATIONS 
Marking Key 



196 





I 
10 

10 

9 
10 


II 


III 


IV 

12 


V 

8 

8 
4 

5 


VI 


VII 


o 


% 


1% 


NAMES 


15 


20 


20 


15 


100 


100 




Jones, Paul 
Smith, John 


5 

3 

5 


5 

3 

5 


5 
( 
3 


5 



5 


5 

5 

5 


5 

5 

5 


5 

4 

5 


12 

8 
12 


10 

10 
9 


10 

5 
9 


15 
12 
13 


100 

68 
91 


100 

68 
91 


F 
E 



Arrange the papers alphabetically corresponding to the 
key list. The marking should be done one question at a 
time. The first question on every paper should be marked 
and a valuation set upon it before the second question 
is touched. In this way the critical judgment is held 
to a limited subject and comparisons between different 
papers can easily be kept in mind. The markings of this 
first question should be critically studied before going 
ahead. Usually you will be surprised to see how these 
standings, thus grouped, agree with your general esti- 
mate of the pupils. 

This done, the next question and the next should be 
taken up in the same way, and so on to the end. 

By this method the judgment can be recorded at the end 
of each question. This gives one the opportunity for a 
rest at intervals without having to hold in mind anything 
that has gone before, and without fear of forgetting what 
this paper or that was marked upon any particular point. 
A station for rest can be taken at the end of each question, 
and the mind return to its attack upon the next one 
refreshed as to a new task. The adding of the final mark- 



194 THE TEACHER 

ings ought to give about as fair an estimate of the work of 
the class as a finite mind can attain. 

There is no reason why these separate questions should 
not be marked in per cents. The total can be translated, 
before publishing, into the system of marking in vogue in 
the school. In doing this a certain range is permissible 
and this range will do away with the annoying comparison 
of markings which is sometimes disturbing to the teacher. 
For instance, anything between 90 and 100 might be con- 
sidered excellent, while anything below a certain mark, 
unsatisfactory, according to what might be deemed a pass- 
ing standing, and all marks between graded accordingly. 
Each school will have to work out the translation accord- 
ing to its own particular system of marking. 

Constant hammering away on the principles of individual 
honesty, an attitude of confidence toward a class, combined 
with sensitiveness to conditions and unfailing 
Honesty alertness will eventually bring most young peo- 

ple to the right attitude toward examinations 
— an attitude of honesty. 

There is a decided difference between alert watchfulness 
and a suspicious attitude. The former every successful 
teacher must maintain throughout her days, although the 
watchfulness must not be apparent; the latter is fatal to 
success in any direction. 

Good teaching stands preeminent in getting independent 
work on examinations. The pupil who is well prepared for 
the ordeal is not looking around for forbidden assistance. 
Hence, after all, as in most cases, the great responsibility 
rests with the teacher. When cheating becomes epidemic, 
then it behooves the teacher to make careful examination of 
herself, for the fault is pretty sure to be there. She 
has probably allowed her pupils to go over the subject 



EXAMINATIONS 195 

without a sense of mastery of it and without gaining the 
necessary power. Knowing their own weaknesses, the pupils 
try to fortify themselves in some way for the test. 

If the fault does not lie here, perhaps the teacher has 
failed to inspire her classes with a sense of true loyalty to 
themselves. In any case, it is almost axiomatic that the 
teacher is somewhere to blame. 

Let her seek diligently for the fault until she find it. 



CHAPTER XIV 
INTEGRITY 

No EDUCATION is Complete which does not include the 
development of the child morally. While this is not a 
treatise on moral education, the true spirit of teaching can- 
not be adequately covered without some formal discussion 
of certain phases of moral training. 

In seeking for the vital element upon which all other 
moral qualities depend, it seems to be found in the one 
word, integrity. If this lies at the foundation 
oT?ntegrPty °^ character, the superstructure reared upon it 
is bound to be symmetrical and lasting. Upon 
it all other virtues rest. Honesty, truthfulness, uprightness, 
fidelity, faithfulness, loyalty, self-respect, promptness, 
obedience, courage, determination, justice, purity — the 
qualities which inspire in us a deep feeling of respect — 
cannot exist without the underlying one of integrity. If 
this is the corner-stone, the other virtues are pretty sure 
to be found in the individual. Any other foundation is 
but shifting sand : the house built upon it is sure to fall. 

The change in social, industrial, and economic conditions 

has been so phenomenal during the last tvrenty-five years, 

and we have been so absorbed in producing 

Sentiment them and admiring the results, that we have 

paid little attention to anything else. 

We are now confronted by the fact that deeper, although 
more subtle, changes have been made In the social structure. 

196 



INTEGRITY 197 

Religion has gone out of fashion ; graft is rampant ; the 
big man is the one who wins the game and little scrutiny is 
given to his methods. 

Public sentiment has changed. We have become tolerant 
of many things which fifty years ago would have shocked 
every respectable community. Two generations back, what 
would they have thought of our modern theatres, of the 
vaudeville shows on Sunday, or of the shows themselves? 
Strict integrity in business is not demanded as it once was. 
It is not uncommon to hear a man highly respected in his 
community, and whose personal honor is unquestioned, say 
that one cannot do business today and be strictly honest. 

Tolerance of questionable methods is common. The man 
who would not be guilty of dishonesty himself is merely 
amused by the subterfuges of his friends, rather than 
indignant. 

This too common attitude is pretty well illustrated in 
the novel, "Queed," by Henry Sydnor Harrison. Charles 
Gardiner West, representing a pleasant type of the suc- 
cessful young man, tells Sharlee Weyland about Bobby 
Smythe's plan for making a little extra money. To West 
the whole affair is merely a good joke. 

"There is a lot of building going on in his (Bobby 
Smythe's) neighborhood, it seems, and it occurred to him 
to send around to the various owners and offer his private 
watchman to guard the loose building materials; this for 
the very reasonable price of $3.50 a week. It went like 
hot cakes. 'But,' said I, 'surely your one w^atchman can't 
look after thirty-seven different places.' 'No,' said Bobby, 
'but they think he does.' I laughed and commended his 
ingenuity. 'But the best part of the joke,' said he, 'is that 
/ haven't got any watchman at all.' " 

A boy who was late for the afternoon session offered as 



198 THE TEACHER 

an excuse the heated argument which had arisen at the 

luncheon table on the subject of gambling. 

The father and mother were old-fashioned 

Young enoufich to retain a few definite moral standards. 

People 

They were emphatically opposed to gambling in 

any form or anything that approached it. The boy could 
see nothing wrong in it. He argued that a man went 
into any such scheme with his eyes wide open, understand- 
ing that he was just as likely to lose as to win. If he were 
willing to take the chance, to stand the loss, why wasn't 
that all there was of it? He could not be made to see any 
moral question involved. 

The strongest arguments of his parents failed to change 
his attitude. The boy had been well and rationally reared. 
He and his father were the best of friends. He had such 
confidence in both his parents that he was not afraid to 
express his honest opinion even though he knew they 
would not agree with him. Moreover, he had that quality 
all too rare in these days — parental respect. 

At the close of the discussion he said voluntarily, "Of 
course, I will not play cards for money or gamble in any 
way, when I know how you feel about it, but I don't see 
anything wrong in it." 

Conversation with the mother later revealed the feeling 
on her part that pubhc sentiment had grown so lax that 
it was overthrowing the influence of those homes that still 
held some definite standards, and still clung to some ideals. 

"Why, think of it!" exclaimed this mother, who was 
prominent in the most exclusive social set of the city, "I am 
considered almost a freak because I will not play bridge 
for money." 

Another boy, a most excellent student and a fine fellow 
in every respect, asked for consideration for not being as 



INTEGRITY 199 

well prepared as usual on his lessons. In explaining he 
said, "Dad had a poker party last night, and there was so 
much going on that I couldn't study." 

Ever3^one can gather within his own small circle many 
examples of similar character. These go to prove a decided 
loosening of moral tension in every community, a tolerance 
and even serene acceptance of conditions that not very long 
ago would have been emphatically condemned. 

"Somebody's swiped my tablet," says a boy beginning 
to look around for an unprotected one of which to take 
possession. "I left my book in my desk when 
I went to class, and somebody's taken it." ftanSards 
"May I borrow a pen.^^ John took mine." 
"Gee ! I can't keep anything unless I carry it around with 
me all the time!" 

Every teacher hears such expressions constantly. The 
saddest thing about it all is the fact that the ones making 
them see no moral question involved. They are annoyed 
by the momentary discomfort, but when the teacher asks 
for assistance in discovering the guilty party, the usual 
answer is, "Oh! that's all right. I take other fellows' 
things when I can't find mine." 

The moral point is obscured by the prevalence of the cus- 
tom, and the idea prevails that there is a decided difference 
between "swiping" and stealing. A boy who would not 
take money from a schoolmate treats all his other belong- 
ings as common property. He has ceased to respect the 
property rights of the individual. 

The same lack of moral fibre appears in athletics. Most 
schools could offer extensive testimony of the dishonesty 
of opposing teams ; of their own shortcomings they say 
little or nothing. An impartial study of the situation 
would reveal that too many are tarred with the same brush. 



200 THE TEACHER 

From "swiping" to stealing is but a short step. To prove 
that the step has been taken by many, it is only necessary 
to walk through the modern school building and notice the 
system of lockers now considered a necessity. Once a simple 
lock or no lock at all was sufficient. Now, money, clothes, 
and athletic material have no protection unless covered by 
a combination lock like that on a burglar-proof safe. 

This whole matter has been so thoroughly discussed that 
elaboration of it is not necessary here.* 

One of the worst obstacles to the development of full 
integrity in school is the existence of a double standard. 
An attitude that is entirely justifiable toward 
sta^ndard'''* a teacher would not be tolerated for an instant 
among the young people themselves. To get 
the best of a teacher is clever; to lie to a comrade is 
unpardonable. 

It was found necessary to dismiss a boy from a boarding- 
school. In commenting upon the occurrence to one of the 
teachers, another boy remarked, "Gee! we fellows were 
wise to him right away. He told big stories which made us 
suspicious. Then he went to lying to us boys, and we 
knew then he was no good. Of course, we didn't hold it 
against him when he lied to you teachers, for that was 
different, but when he lied to us it was all off." 

This Janus-headed attitude shows itself in all school 
relations. 

It may seldom, perhaps never, come to formulated 

expression, but the belief is as old as the oldest school-house 

that a teacher must be tricked into believing 

Ffecitatfon ^^^^ everybody has his lesson. The whole class 

is united in this endeavor. 

* For an excellent presentation of this whole subject, see ''The 
School Eeview," February, 1912. ''The High School Boy's Morals," 
bv Franklin W. Johnson. 



INTEGRITY 201 

The boy who is stumbhngly trying to make a recitation 
is, in the minds of his fellows, entitled to all assistance 
within his reach. His neighbor is in duty bound to prompt 
him, if that can be done skillfully enough to evade the 
teacher; an open book, a supporting paper, an interlinear, 
anything that will bring the individual to a happy issue out 
of all his troubles, is fair play. The only crime is detection. 

There is no sure way of correcting this except to change 
the attitude of the class in this particular. The task is not 
an easy one, but much can be done by persistent endeavor. 
Keenness of observation, amiability, quick wit, and persist- 
ency, are the necessary weapons. The confidence of the 
class should be engaged and in a kindly, sympathetic way 
the struggle for independent work should be waged. 

A teacher once took a class that was particularly trouble- 
some in the matter of getting help wherever it was within 
reach. They gratefully accepted all promptings from their 
neighbors, opened their books whenever memory failed, and 
thought everything fair in recitation as in war. The teacher 
labored unremittingly for correction of the evil, and made 
headway. 

One day the geometry lesson consisted of the sixth and 
seventh propositions, and these were assigned alternately 
to the class as they stood at the board. The sixth was very 
easy; the seventh, difficult. 

Soon there came from behind the teacher the pathetic 
voice, with a laugh in it, however, of the boy who had been 
the very worst offender, "It's all right to peek in the book 
if you get the seventh, isn't it?" 

The teacher knew that she had won, for w^hen one can 
joke about what has been a serious fault, the struggle is 
over. 

The assigning of a certain amount of written work to 



202 THE TEACHER 

be done out of class and handed in is a common practice. 
This will produce desirable results or the contrary, depend- 
ing upon the good sense of the teacher and the relations 
which exist between her and the class. The ingenious and 
lazy ones may, some of them will, profit by the ability or 
industry of others. Eternal vigilance is the price of 
honesty in this regard. 

Monotony here is deadly. As soon as a class learns that 
a certain number of examples, a certain number of sen- 
tences, will be demanded each day, the work loses all its 
spring, and the ingenuity of the class will be aroused to 
get these tangible results as easily as possible. A division 
of labor is likely to follow, for copying is so much easier 
than wrestling alone with the difficulty. This can be done 
without detection by even the brightest teacher on close 
watch for it. The only effective way is to remove the 
desire. 

Herein lies one reason for the method of marking already 
suggested. Only a small part of the day's work should be 
allowed to depend upon these papers prepared outside. 
The recitation should produce the same correct solution of 
the same correct sentences, and mental comparison made of 
the class work and the paper handed in. If the class reci- 
tation falls much below the paper, then there is cause for 
suspicion and for renewed watchfulness. If attempted dis- 
honesty is pretty nearly proved, then it must be run to 
earth and forcibl}^ dealt with. 

How this shall be done, again depends upon the indi- 
vidual teacher and her personal relations to the pupil. 
There is always the chance that the suspicion may be an 
unjust one, and indignation often follows alike the just 
and the unjust accusation. 

Sometimes it is best to meet the suspect frankly, put 



INTEGRITY 203 

before him the evidence as it appears to you, show that it 
seems condemnatory, and then, in all seriousness, ask if 
there is any circumstance that you have overlooked. This 
should be done in the manner which every tactful teacher 
commands, to stir the desire to tell the truth and to meet 
the situation fairly. This will not always work ; sometimes 
the pupil who you are convinced has been dealing dishon- 
estly will still insist upon his innocence. In that case, you 
must try some other way. 

It is well to talk to the class together, letting them 
understand that you are not free from the feeling that 
some in the class are not doing honest work. This is the 
opportunity for bringing forcefully to their minds the idea 
that it is not the teacher who is suffering, but themselves 
who are being cheated. It will take many talks, before the 
idea takes lodgment in the brains of the young people. 

With the right treatment, however, a class can be brought 
to realize that they are wasting their own time and energies 
by trying anything but honest work. 

A teacher once had a long, hard battle with one particu- 
lar boy. 

When she took the class there was strong evidence that 
a few of the brighter pupils w^ere doing the written work, 
the rest being content merely to cop}'. By bringing the 
indolent to grief in recitation, by constant talking upon 
the subject, by showing how this habit was only working 
their own downfall, and by serious talks w^ith some of the 
more persistent offenders, she nearly eradicated the tend- 
ency. One boy, however, continued to hand in papers that 
were not his work, and she determined to conquer him for 
his own sake. 

"I've had a queer experience," she said one day, as she 
stood before the class. 



204 THE TEACHER 

Everyone came quickly to attention, for this woman was 
often picturesque in her methods, and the tone of her voice 
and her manner aroused curiosity. 

"In looking over these papers," she continued, glancing 
at the package in her hand, "somehow I got them mixed 
up, and two of them were so exactly alike that I couldn't 
tell them apart, and couldn't put the right sheets together, 
so I threw the papers in the waste basket and marked the 
standings of both zero." 

There was silence for an instant, for every member of 
the class understood what had happened. Then those who 
knew the}^ were innocent either of copying or of lending 
paper to be copied began to look around the class to dis- 
cover the culprits. Most of them knew where to look, for 
this one boy was an old offender, better known to the class 
than to the teacher. 

He tried to look unconscious, but the leveled eyes of his 
classmates proved too much for him, and, dropping his 
head, he made busy with his book. 

The teacher then went on with the recitation, allowing 
the event to work its way down into the boy's conscience, 
feeling sure that her action would eventually bear fruit. 

Later in the day the boy dropped into the vacant chair 
on the platform beside her. 

"Bob wasn't to blame at all," he said. "I asked him for 
his paper. Of course you know I was the one who copied. 
Bob never needs any help." 

"Yes, I knew you did the copying, but Bob is equally 
to blame." 

John looked up in surprise. 

"You doubt that, don't you? Let's see what Bob has to 
say," she said, motioning him to the chair on the other 
side of her. 



INTEGRITY ^0^ 

«A fellow couldn't refuse to lend his paper," said Bob, 
^^^^fZ:^::"'^^^^ ''oing anything wrong 
^""ll'uM refuse, all the fellows would think I was 
stuck up and mean. You can't be a cad, you know 
"Do you think it right to help another do wrong? 
"Of course not," agreed Bob. tkn,,cand 

"If John had asked you to help h.m s eal a tho"^^"^ 
dollars, should you have considered yourself a cad >f you 
had refused?" 

"That is different." . . , • j tIio low 

"Different in degree, perhaps, but not m kn.d The l^v 

holds an accomplice in crime culpable - ^f ^ J'^^'^^ 
offender. If you help a comrade do a dishonest act, 

^TnetTo5r:nt It light," Bob confessed, 
and^jZlooked-as though tl. Jf - - -w to h.m a U 

"The trouble is," contn.ued the teacher J-^^* y°™S 
people think that moral standards m -'-"'/'^Jf "^ 
Lm those that govern life elsewhere and - ^o thmg m 
connection with school that they would scorn to do outside^ 
Nerer one of you would steal, and yet you were ^h 
wilHng to d.eat me into giving John a mark wh.ch he had 

"""BuTwhat should I have done ?" asked Bob. 

"I confess that is a hard question to answer The real 

cure i in getting John, and others who have been w.Mmg 

o lean up!n th^ir friends, to scorn such t-ckery. That 

condition'.ay come slowly, but I propose to continue the 

-^ t tre^r; ^^t:^ up t^s moming. 
work?" asked John. 



m6 THE TEACHER 

"I'll do my paper all over," Bob offered, "and twice as 
many examples more, if you'll give me the chance." 

"And I'll do mine all over," said John, "and as much 
more as 3^ou think I ought to do." 

The teacher considered. 

"I believe I will let you do what you propose. Perhaps 
in that way I can make you understand that what I am 
seeking is right relation in school work." 

With that the interview closed. Bob plunged into the 
algebra and soon brought the completed day's paper, and 
asked for the extra assignment. The teacher gave him a 
heavy one. That did not trouble Bob, however, for he was 
a good student. 

But with John it was different. He had for so long 
depended upon someone else to do his work that to delve 
honestly and prepare the lesson all alone was a tremendous 
task. He went at it, though, as if he meant to conquer it 
himself. 

The teacher understood human nature pretty well and, 
knowing that honesty is not reached by a single bound, she 
did not let her mind wander entirely from the boy whose 
seat was near her desk. 

For a time everything went well, then John began to 
watch the teacher until she saw that he was consulting a 
paper under his desk. 

"Bring me that paper, John," she said. 

John hunted around in his desk in a hesitating man- 
ner, finally offering a package of theme paper. The time 
had passed for considerate treatment; stern justice was 
now in demand. 

"I am sure, now, that I shall not care to see the paper 
which you are preparing," she said, turning away with an 
air of finality. 



INTEGRITY 207 

The boy sat for a long time looking out of the window. 
Anger burned in his face, but whether the wrath was di- 
rected against the teacher or against himself was im- 
possible to tell. At any rate, it was a time to let him 
utterly alone. A hard fight was before him and no one 
could help him yet. 

"When the soul arms for battle. 
It goes forth alone." 

Little by little his mood changed. Finally he attracted 
the teacher's attention to the fact that he was tearing up a 
lot of algebra papers. Through with that, he brought 
his algebra and a fresh tablet to her desk, pulled out the 
extension, and took a seat at the teacher's side. Neither 
spoke a word. This teacher had learned the power that 
lies in silence. 

John began at the beginning of the fatal lesson. He 
had good natural ability but had so long depended upon 
others that the day's assignment really offered a long, hard 
task. But he set his teeth and the same look came into 
his face that the teacher had seen when he took the ball 
for a long run down the football field toward the enemy's 
goal. This gave her courage and she began to hope that 
this determination would master his natural impatience 
and bring him to the right. 

She went on about her own work but was ready to help 
when he needed help and to answer all his questions. He 
made steady progress but when school closed the task was 
not ended. ^ The boy, however, never looked up but kept 
steadily at work. Finally, with head lifted high, he 
exclaimed in triumph: 

"There, I did them alll" 



THE TEACHER 

"And you did them yourself. That is the best of it.'* 

"I'll never try to cheat you again. I'm through. Will 
you shake on it.^^" And he reached out his strong young 
hand. 

She met the firm grasp that almost crushed her hand, 
without flinching. 

"Remember this," was her summary, "you will be with 
me here only a little while and it will not be difficult to 
deceive me, but you cannot long deceive yourself. You 
will have to live with yourself all your life. See to it 
that you make yourself a worthy companion." 

Such a victory is not for a day nor for a year. He 
had fought the good fight and won a victory the effect 
of which would last through life. 

Ways of preventing cheating in examination have been 
suggested and discussed without end, but the sovereign 
^jjv ,^ remedy has not yet been discovered. There 

^ons"'"^' ^^^ ^^^ general methods: one is the so-called 
honor system ; the other, the one of eternal 
vigilance. Can either one be adopted pure and simple in 
the grades or even in the high school.'^ 

A police system of supervision is to be deplored in any 
school work, and it is not necessary in examinations. The 
moment a teacher takes up a conspicuous position and 
begins to patrol the aisles she immediatel}^ advertises the 
fact that, in her opinion, the class cannot be trusted. This 
serves to put them on their mettle to see if they cannot 
beat the teacher at her own game. 

Some of them will succeed if they are so minded, and she 
never be the wiser. The man or woman does not live 
who is sufficiently argus eyed to keep constantly within 
vision the movements of each individual in the class. It is 
easy to steal a glance at supporting book or charitable 



INTEGRITY 209 

paper or get a helpful word from neighbor and never 
arouse suspicion. 

On the other hand, the teacher who leaves pupils entirely 
to themselves, who takes up a book or occupies herself with 
papers, equally advertises for dishonesty. 

No matter what the method pursued, there are sure to 
be occasional cases of cheating in examinations; that is 
inevitable. No one need expect to bring school or class 
to that standard of individual honesty where there will 
never be a case of cheating. It can, however, be practically 
eradicated and a class brought to that condition where, as 
a class, it is honest. There will always be individuals who 
can never be whipped into line. 

To attain even these results constant exertion is neces- 
sary. Every effort must be put forth to remove the 
temptation to cheat, every opportunity embraced to in- 
spire each child with a desire for personal integrity. As in 
recitation, he should be led to see that the person whom 
he is reallj^ cheating is himself. He should be inspired 
to the strong feeling that loyalty to his own honor is his 
first duty, his high purpose in life. Young people re- 
spond readily to such influences and the majority will 
always be impressed. In fact, the majority are honest; 
the dishonest form the exception. 

If a general spirit of class honesty can be aroused, it 
helps much toward individual honesty. When this is 
accomplished the dishonest child loses caste and is held 
in scorn by his fellows. This is emphatically true of 
younger children. 

An honor system pure and simple may be a 
success in college; that it can be in the lower system°"°'' 
school is a doubtful proposition. It is true 
that the nearest approach to it that is possible should be 



^10 THE TEACHER 

striven for with the utmost earnestness, and all young 
people lifted to the highest standard of honesty which 
they can be made to attain. 

The difference, however, in the needs and the maturity 
of the grades and the secondary schools should never be 
lost sight of. What will do for colleges is ruinous to the 
graded school. That is as true in moral training as in 
intellectual. 

A great many public schools have tried the honor sys- 
tem and various schemes of self-government. They have 
exploited their success for a time, but they have not stilled 
the incredulity of the skeptical. Some educators have 
worked out a theory, a beautiful and a symmetrical one; 
they think about this, they dream about it and ideally they 
see it in operation. The perfection of it is so close to 
their vision that they cannot always see at first what is 
really happening when it is put into practical operation. 
Like many theories for perpetual motion, it might work 
in a vacuum, but when it encounters the friction of the real 
world it eventually runs down. 

The friction that is encountered in these fanciful 
schemes for starting the moral machinery and then going 
away and expecting it to run on indefinitely is the human 
element that must be reckoned with. 

Youth, inexperience, impulse, natural tendencies, have 
to be constantly considered. There is no question what- 
ever in the mind of anyone who has dealt sympathetically 
with young people that their intentions are right. They 
wish to be good and pure and honest; they desire 
to be considered so. Much dishonesty arises from this 
very ambition to appear honest, if that paradox is plain. 

The moral training of young people is much like teach- 
ing little ones to walk. We let them go alone to the 



INTEGRITY ^H 

full limit of their strength, but the watchful attention of 
the loving parent saves the child a fall when possible or 
wise; when that cannot be accomplished he picks the child 
up, soothes his hurts, and sets him upon his feet, again 
headed in the right direction. We do not, however, let 
the undeveloped child go far from our watchful eye; the 
restraining, helpful hand is always within reach when need 
for it arises. 

Each human life is molded to the pattern of its ideals. 
It may not come true, symmetrical, or entirely beau- 
tiful from the wheel of life, the colors may dim 
in the firing or fade out altogether, yet with- 'deals 
out some model, some definite pattern, the 
clay would remain but a shapeless mass, unformed and 

11 sp Ipss 

None of us ever attain to the full glory of our ideals, 
yet without them the days are purposeless, the hours but 

a barren waste. 

Ambition touches us early; emulation stirs us to en- 
deavor. The first childish imaginings may not rise higher 
than the desire to be a policeman, a fireman, or a street-car 
conductor. These are the picturesque instances of great- 
ness and authority that first strike the childish vision. 
The child goes to a circus. Its glamour leads him on to 
the wild ambition to enter the sawdust ring. On a little 
journey, he becomes enamored of the mighty puffing engine 
and dreams of some day having his hand upon the throttle, 
the wonderful mechanism under his control. 

As life broadens and experiences change, the ideals ot 
the child change from month to month, growing more 
ambitious all the time. 

The natural ideals of a child have to do with the ma- 
terial side of life, yet this tendency to look to others for 



^1^ THE TEACHER 

models offers the opportunity for implanting standards of 
integrity. These deeper, more subtle ideals must come 
from the outside but they will be received eagerly and fol- 
lowed closely, more closely than older people sometimes 
expect. 

The setting up of these high moral standards is one of 
the most important duties of everyone having to do with 
the training of children. 

Each night when dinner was over two boys claimed their 
mother for their own. No matter what the evening's later 
•ngagement, there came 

"A pause in the day's occupation 
That is known as the children's hour." 

Often the time was given to story telling or reading, and 
the reading was not of mere idle tales to be heard today and 
forgotten tomorrow. The boys knew their Hawthorne's 
"Wonder Book" almost by heart. Perseus, Bellerophon, 
Pegasus, and all the other characters with long Greek 
names were their fairies. They knew the story of the 
Trojan War and the wanderings of Ulysses. When 
they reached "Hiawatha" the dramatic instinct leaped 
forth in the younger of the two boys, and' for months he 
was Hiawatha. 

He carried the same intensity into American history. 
It was but a step from Hiawatha to John Smith and then 
came the revolution with George Washington the central 
figure. All the others faded into forgetfulness before this 
new and wonderful character. 

George Washington became his one hero and the boy 
listened to every story about him with absorption. He 
started a George Washington scrap-book and his mother 



INTEGRITY 213 

helped him find pictures and stories to put into it. A fine 
framed copy of the Stuart Washington was a part of his 
Christmas and was given the place of honor in his room. 
His mother made him a hat which he thought looked like 
the one his hero wore in that wonderful picture, "Wash- 
ington Crossing the Delaware." With this hat and 
with a sword and a few other properties, he delighted in 
striking what he imagined were Washingtonian attitudes 
and making Washingtonian speeches. 

Through all these things, the character of the man 
drove its impression deep into the little boy's heart and 
mind. 

These two boys were given a wise amount of liberty 
but there were some things which they knew they must not 
do. They had a little cousin whose father owned a big hotel, 
where there was much to attract the small boy. There 
was the big friendly steward in the store-room, which was 
piled with oranges, bananas, nuts, raisins, and other good 
things. Strolling musicians were frequently in the lobby; 
sometimes a brass band with the attendant crowd, and 
always there was fascinating excitement. 

The mother was sure this was not a very good place for 
the boys to spend their time, and she had said they must 
never go there without her permission. 

One afternoon she sat in her room. Suddenly the front 
door slammed, she heard rushing feet along the hall and 
on the stairs, heard the call "Mother! mother!" The 
door was thrown open and the child, breathless and with 
tears streaming down his face, flung himself into his 
mother's arms. 

"I didn't go in, mother! I got clear to the hotel door, 
but I couldn't go in, for I must grow up to be a good man 
like George Washington, so I had to mind you!" And 



2U THE TEACHER 

with a deeper sob, the sob of rehef, he hid his head on 
his mother's shoulder. 

And then the mother knew that the silent teaching of 
the good great man had touched the soul of her boy. 
When tempted beyond his strength, he remembered his 
hero and his hero saved him. 

This is only one of the noble characters with which his- 
tory is crowded. Their value as live, forceful teachers, 
as helps toward building character, can scarcely be over- 
estimated. The companions of our thoughts are as im- 
portant as the companions of flesh and blood and vastly 
more permanent. 

Every purposeful impulse has a tendency to take shape 

in some form of organization. The gregariousness of 

human nature impels to the forming of clubs 

Om^'nization ^^^ mutual support and assistance. When two 

or three are gathered together in the name of 

some high purpose, a club is usually the result. 

The institutional church has taken advantage of this 
characteristic to organize its young people for general or 
specific improvement. The Boy Scouts of America, nation 
wide in its influence, is, through its very systematic organi- 
zation, putting before boys high ideals and teaching them 
to incorporate these ideals into their daily life. The Camp 
Fire Girls is planning to do the same thing for girls. 

The little clubs that spring up in every community, 
especially in schools, have their foundation in some desire 
for improvement either intellectually, morally, or spiritu- 
ally. Even the school fraternities, now in such disfavor, 
started out with worthy purposes. 

This natural impulse toward organization may, through 
wise encouragement and judicious oversight, be turned to 
good account. Here is one instance w^here that was done. 



INTEGRITY 215 

A sixth year class read the story of King Arthur and 
His Knights. The accounts of thrilhng adventures, 
the high ideals of the Arthurian legends are pecul- 
iarly appealing to boys of this age. The fights with 
monsters and the stories of brave knights found ready 
response in the heart of every boy. Then came the longing 
to perform deeds of heroism. But, alas! there were no 
vast forests where wild beasts crouched ready to seize upon 
and to devour the unwary. There were no moat-encircled 
castles in which beautiful princesses were imprisoned, await- 
ing rescue at the hands of gallant knights. 

At length, whether evolved from their own imaginings 
or whether subtly suggested by the wise teacher whose 
guiding hand was always over the class, the idea came to 
the surface that, while these material battles were impos- 
sible, there u^ere evils to be combated, wars to be waged, 
victories to be won. 

The final outcome was the forming of a Court of King 
Arthur and his noble knights with regular meetings of 
the Round Table. Each boy took the name of some knight 
and the ideals of King Arthur, Merlin, Galahad, Lancelot, 
Bedivere, and others became a part of the daily life. 

Each boy designed and made for himself in the shops 
and art room an appropriate shield and banner. Upon 
these, dragons, serpents, the rising sun, the cross, and 
the gleaming chalice were favorite emblems. 

They had a pin which King Arthur presented at the 
ceremonial of knighting. It was a blue shield bearing a 
white cross. The spirit of the organization is set forth 
in King Arthur's charge: 

"A badge of knighthood would I have you wear, a 
silver shield, a symbol of your strength and power to 



216 THE TEACHER 

guard all good from touch of harm, and with jour kindly 
heart and knightly arm protect all who are weak. This 
badge must mean that you will be true knights and bold, 
that men may count on you to win this court and all the 
world to that which is most pure and good. 

"Across the shield there is a cross, another symbol this: 
The cross we wear is never laid upon us ; we must take it 
of our own free will — and so across the shield there is the 
sign that Arthur's knights have taken on themselves the 
burden of the warfare that shall win the cause that many 
great and good have lived and died to win, the cause of 
righteousness, first here in Arthur's Court, and then in 
the whole world. 

"And so, my knights, so long as you do wear this shield, 
barred with the cross of white, I charge you to think well 
upon its meaning and be strong and pure and true." 

The blue shield was a constant reminder of what they 
expected of themselves and of each other. The teacher 
had merely to look at the emblem on the boy's coat to 
bring him instantly to a right attitude. Besides watching 
themselves they took a personal interest in all the members 
of the court and became in a way responsible for them. 

One day the class had made a dismal failure in recita- 
tion and the teacher directed them to report after school. 
She did not put it as a punishment, but she gave them the 
opportunity to make up the work. 

At close of school every boy but one was in his seat. 
This absence aroused great indignation on the part of 
those who were present and all through the time they 
worked frequent growls could be heard because of the 
defection of this one member. That, however, did not 



INTEGRITY 217 

interfere with their work and the allotted task was soon 
finished. They left the room in a hum of indignation 
at the boj who had dared thus neglect his duty. He 
was no worthy member of their society and must be vig- 
orously dealt with. 

The teacher was busy at her desk for a little time. There 
was a shuffling commotion in the hall. The door burst open 
and King Arthur and one of the other knights appeared 
in the doorway holding the culprit between them, a close 
prisoner. Behind this group was the entire class, the 
complete circle of the Round Table. 

"We've got him !" said the leader, "and he's got to 
do his work or we'll turn him out. The idea of a boy 
who wears our pin not doing what he's told to!" And 
they all looked at him with such scorn as only the single- 
mindedness of such a group of boys can furnish. 

The teacher supposed that, having delivered their pris- 
oner, the boys would depart, but not so. They all sat 
down behind him with a look of grim determination on 
their faces and the remark from the leader indicated that 
they proposed to sta}^ until they saw every bit of the work 
completed. And they did. 

In the face of the general letting down of public senti- 
ment, in the lax attitude of many homes, what responsi- 
bility shall the schools take.^* 

... . Responsi- 

The easier attitude is the assumption that binty of the 

Teacher 
if parents are indifferent the teacher need 

not be disturbed. But that is not the answer which teachers 

themselves are giving. 

For the greater part of their waking hours children 

are under the care of the schools. Their regular activities 

are here, the activities through which character is being 



218 THE TEACHER 

molded. For this reason it becomes the business, the im- 
portant business of the school, to see that these activities 
are honestly carried out, so that the boys and girls will 
have the sure foundation of integrity. 

Organized systematic study of the question has been en- 
tered upon and definite action taken by various school or- 
ganizations to combat the general indifference to the higher 
issues of life. The Council of the National Educational 
Association has taken the matter up and state after state 
has appointed committees for the furthering of systematic 
teaching of morals in the public schools. It may be some 
time before they agree as to how this shall be done, whether 
directly or indirectly, but the discussion, the various maga- 
zine articles, and the experimentation is bound to keep the 
subject pretty thoroughly before the minds of all teachers. 

In a way, schools have always stood for integrity, but 
that position has too often been a passive one, — the silent 
bloodless hand upon a guide-post pointing the way, in the 
right direction, to be sure, but doing it mutely, inertly. 
The crying need of youth is the hand sympathetically 
extended, warm, tender, pulsating with the life-blood of 
honest activity, a hand to lead the child joyously on his 
way to perfect integrity. 

As the years go by, we get rather hopeless of social 
conditions. So many things seem impossible to change 
that it is easy to give up trying. This attitude may be 
justifiable when dealing with adults, but the young are 
wax in our hands, clay moist for facile modeling. 

The cases are rare when a child by right training, care- 
ful counsel, and persistent alertness may not be brought 
to general uprightness. 

There Is no place where more can be done to this end 
than in the schools where his life centers, where are to be 



INTEGRITY 219 

found his greatest activities. The responsibihtj for this 
rests upon the teachers. 

The intense aversion of young people to what they term 
"preachnig" has gone far toward ehminating serious talks 
to them. There is a way, however, of ap- 
proaching many serious subjects so as to yaiks^' 
hold their thoughtful attention. With all their 
buoyancy and merriment, under all their carelessness, there 
is in children a deep vein of seriousness. "The thoughts of 
youth are long, long thoughts," and through them their 
minds travel over many mighty questions. 

In a school where the lady in charge had come into 
very close relations with the boys and girls, it grew to 
be a regular part of the programme to talk to the pupils 
each Monday on some serious subject. These "Monday 
Talks," as the school soon named them, originated in taking 
a minute or two at the beginning of the week to mention 
little things that always need occasional gathering up, — 
trifling disorders, general dropping down in studies, or 
announcements of changes affecting the entire school. 

It was but a step to other topics and the school began 
to look forward to these talks. The principal saw in them 
an opportunity for wider influence. At first she went very 
gingerly, afraid of "preaching," but in a little while no 
subject was too serious. Never did she note in the up- 
turned faces anything but earnest, purposeful attention to 
her helpful, sober words. 

It is more than ten years since she left that school, but 
occasionally even now a pupil of those da^'s tells her some- 
thing that she said in one of those Monday talks which has 
exerted upon him an influence for good. 

The inspiration of an outsider will invariabW leave 
results. A good powerful speaker rarely fails to say some- 



THE TEACHER 

thing that sticks. Usually such speakers present a truth 
in vivid picturesque language. Sometimes it is a figure 
striking enough to make a permanent impression. 

A college president in addressing a boys' school com- 
pared one type of boys to a wheelbarrow. A wheelbarrow 
cannot stand up except for the supporting legs put there 
for that sole purpose. It never gets anywhere unless some 
outside force pushes it. 

In this school each Friday night a list of those who had 
fallen below standard in studies for the week wa§ posted 
by numbers. After this speech, the man in charge headed 
this list, "The Wheelbarrow Club." This came to mean 
more than failure in studies. It hinted at the reason: 
these boys were not able to stand alone ; they could not get 
where they belonged without the most constant pushing. 
"The Wheelbarrow Club" became very unpopular and 
efforts increased to keep out of it. 

At another time a speaker dwelt impressively upon the 
voluntary service which really great people have rendered 
the world. He showed that the things which stand for 
progress have been done not because the person doing 
them was compelled to do them but because a deep integrity 
in his own nature urged him on to do the utmost of which 
he was capable. The speaker also showed that such people 
were capable of these higher accomplishments because they 
had done honestly the things that fell In the line of their 
plain duty. He summed up in words that possessed cling- 
ing qualities: 

"The things that you do that you don't have to are 
more important than the things you do that you do have 
to. But you can't do the things you don't have to till 
you have done the things you do have to." 



INTEGRITY 2gl 

"I've had an awful time making my accounts come out 
right !" The speaker was a boy in a large school. 

"Did you succeed?" asked a teacher. 

"Well, I had to monkey with them a lot ?|fK"^' 
before they did." 

"What do you mean by that.^^" asked the teacher. 

"Whjs you see, my father is trying a new plan with 
my allowance. He gave me some money the first of the 
month. He told me he wanted me to spend it as I thought 
best, but he wanted me to keep an account and let him 
see it each week, so he could help me learn to spend money 
and not throw it away for foolishness. The first week I 
came out all right, but this week I've forgotten to put 
down things and I was two or three dollars short at first." 

"What did you do.?" 

"Oh, I made it all right. I went over it and added a 
little here and a little there until I made it balance." 

"And you thought that was right .'^" 

"Sure! I spent the money for just about those things, 
only I couldn't remember exactly what." 

"Why didn't you charge up the difference to loss.^^" 

"Because father would be angry if it didn't balance." 

"Oh! you were a coward?" 

"No, not exactlv, but I hate to have him angry if I can 
help it." 

The teacher thought a minute. "I don't know your 
father very well, but I think he is the kind of man to 
whom I could give every dollar I had without taking a 
receipt and know that when I wanted it back your father 
would give an honest accounting." 

"That's right." 

"If he became angry at you, it would be because of his 
anxiety to have you grow up with the same kind of integ- 



THE TEACHER 

ritj. Do you think you can do that by beginning now 
to falsify your accounts?" 

"No, of course not, but what would you do?" 

"If I had the courage, and I think you have, I should 
tell him the exact truth, and this is about what I think 
it is: you started out all right and kept strict account 
for a week. By the second week it had become an old 
story. You didn't set down each expenditure as you made 
it. Your natural carelessness got in the way. You are 
sorry and you will try to do better next week. The reason 
that you wanted to falsify your accounts was to avoid 
unpleasantness now, for 3'ou are perfectly sure you will 
never be so careless again if you can only get out of this 
difficulty comfortably. Am I right?" 

"Sure, you are." 

"Does that strike you as being something the line of 
reasoning that defalcating cashiers have taken? Don't be 
a coward. Tell the truth and take the consequences." 

The boy took the advice and not only confessed his 
carelessness, but told the whole story of his talk with the 
teacher. The father did not become angry. The boy 
made one step toward strengthening the integrity of his 
nature, but without wise counsel he would have gone in 
the other direction. 

Every day offers opportunities similar to the above. The 
careless teacher, the time-server, will never see them. The 
helpful teacher will stretch out a hand to all of them. 
Nine times out of ten he will win. The liar will soon 
begin to tell the truth to such a teacher. The thief con- 
victed by such a teacher will cease to steal, recitations will 
grow more honest, cheating will fade from examinations, a 
general spirit of integrity and mutual confidence will grow 
up In a school dominated by such a personality. 



INTEGRITY 223 

Such a teacher will often feel at the close of the day 
that "virtue has gone out of him," but it will have gone 
to the uplifting of each individual in the school to a 
higher plane of honesty. 



CHAPTER XV 
SCHOOL WASTE 

The famous ordinance of 1787 declared that in these 

United States, "Schools and the means of education shall 

_ , forever be encourasjed." From that day to 

Development , . , p i • i i 

of Our this the value of education has never been 
System 

lost sight of. Decade by decade there has 
arisen upon this foundation a massive superstructure which 
has long been the pride of the nation. That it is big 
enough to be proud of, there is no question, but that 
it is beautiful, complete, or wholly sound, is open to 
argument. 

We boast of this mighty system of education, with espe- 
cial emphasis upon the system. We have built up a great 
machine. Our children at the age of four or five are 
poured into the hopper of the kindergarten and ground 
systematically through the primary and secondary schools. 
If, in the grinding process, a few grains of humanity es- 
cape, there are compulsory education laws and vigorous, 
able-bodied truant officers to gather up the grains and re- 
turn them to the mill. By means of college entrance 
examinations, or of a diploma system, the youths are passed 
on to the somewhat more flexible machine of the colleges. 

The early schools grew naturally out of the social and 
industrial conditions of colonial life. Communities were 
small and families lived under identical or similar condi- 
tions. They were near enough the beginnings of their 

224 



SCHOOL WASTE 225 

own peculiar civilization to understand what, at that time, 
was best for them. The young man who was to continue 
on the farm, go into business, or start out into the world 
to seek his fortune, never thought of college as either 
desirable or possible for him. Farm or an established busi- 
ness claimed some. If a trade were chosen, then the ap- 
prentice system took care of the candidate and a boy had 
years of specific training under skilled blacksmith, carpen- 
ter, or cabinet-maker, as the case might be. 

For these reasons, college work, planned solely for pro- 
fessional men, took clearly defined and narrow lines, the 
bulk of the w^ork being Greek, Latin, and mathematics, 
with a little history and less French, German, and literature. 
Of science, according to modern standards, there was hardly 
enough to mention. 

There was no question as to the desirability of the studies 
selected. The lawyer must know Latin and Greek in order 
to adorn his pleadings with sonorous and impressive 
periods ; the doctor must have countless classical words and 
terminations to fortify his unscientific drugs ; the preacher 
must stand before a community as the exponent of all hu- 
man knowledge as well as a guide in things spiritual; the 
teacher must be more than a dictionary, better than an 
encyclopedia. 

As soon as colleges came into prominence it was neces- 
sary for entering students to possess a reasonably accu- 
rate knowledge of certain facts. It then became the busi- 
ness of academies to offer means for gathering this infor- 
mation. 

The academy was the door and, like the colleges, began 
to demand a pass-word. In this way, the common schools, 
becoming the slaves of the secondary schools, were attached 
to the system. 



226 THE TEACHER 

In this perfectly natural way, growing normall}^ out of 
the then existing social and industrial conditions, a clearly 
defined educational system was built up. This system was 
dominated from the top, — from the colleges. They set the 
pace, they dictated to the academies which then filled the 
place of our secondary schools, which, in their turn, 
stretched out a compelling hand to the common schools. 

This educational system exists today, out of harmony 

with modern civilization and as inadequate for the needs 

of modern life as would be the swinging flail or 

2«I3fIfJo««^w the graceful sickle to the American farmer on 
Complacency ^ 

the plains of the vast northwest. 

The colleges are still absolute dictators and to their 
demands the secondary schools have meekly acceded, ac- 
cepting without a murmur all requirements for added work. 
They have gone on whipping up their pupils to keep them 
in the race, even though they stumbled over the line intel- 
lectually winded and with heart completely knocked out 
for the next race. 

If the way is by college entrance examination, the real 
education of the pupil must be suspended not later than 
the eleventh year in order to begin the process of cram- 
ming his brain with certain facts. When entrance is by 
diploma, the condition is but slightly different. The col- 
leges still say what shall be done ; they merely place a little 
more confidence in the teachers of the secondary school 
and trust them to see that the cramming is properly done. 

The American people have accepted with satisfaction 
and pride this standard for our school. They have seemed 
to feel that education, like love, is not education 

"Which alters when it alteration finds." 

Originally organized for purely academic culture, we 



SCHOOL WASTE ^27 

have let civilization march past us and have been slow to 
realize that changed conditions make different demands 
upon everything, even our schools. 

For generations we have looked upon this structure and 
called it good. We have made of our educational system 
a fetish ; we have bowed down to an idol. 

But that day is past. In the minds of all un^r^e^st* 
thinkers on educational matters there have 
arisen grave doubts as to the wisdom of what we are doing, 
a question as to whether we arc not entirely on the wrong 
track. Decided unrest marks the educational world. Dis- 
satisfaction with the schools, and criticisms of their methods, 
fill magazines and newspapers, while adverse discussion flows 
freely from the mouths of teachers themselves. 

Tested by the needs of modern civilization, possibly 
we are fundamentally wrong. Is this great system, so 
cheerfully supported by the people, wasting the money of 
the people.^ Is it wasting the energy of the child .-^ Is it 
wasting opportunities.^ Is it wasting life.^^ 

The former dump heap of great manufacturing estab- 
lishments has now become their gold mine. By the con- 
servation of what was once waste, the by-products have fre- 
quently become more valuable than the original output. 
In the business world waste is considered almost criminal, 
3'et in our schools we have submitted to it in countless 
directions without a murmur, often without knowing that 
it exists. 

If it vrere possible, would it not be well to "draw the 
wet sponge across the accusing slate" and begin again.? 

Of course that cannot be done. We are 
like property owners in a great city who find ^l^edy?**^^ 
themselves possessed of a building too valuable 
to tear down, but inadequate for growing needs and 



nS THE TEACHER 

shaky in its foundations. The building must be Hfted and 
supported until a new foundation can be put under it 
strong enough for future needs and then the rest of the 
building must be repaired and enlarged and fitted to modern 
demands as rapidly as possible. 

It should be the business of every teacher early to take 
her bearings upon the educational sea, study the chart 
carefully for already tested harbors, know the rocks and 
reefs which have warped and battered the craft, and then 
send the searching glass far ahead to seek a clear path to 
the desired harbor. 

Teachers should be educational experts, thoroughly fa- 
miiliar with the present system, conscious of its faults and 
its points of permanent value, but ever on the watch for 
chances for improvement, ready even for a revolution if 
that way lies reform. 

Schools and teachers have been severely criticized for 
the epidemic of fads that has swept the countr3^ But 
what does this faddfsm indicate? Merely that 
Fads the educational system is desperately sick and 

that the earnest, enthusiastic educators are 
trying, by the application of certain specifics which have 
worked cures in some cases, to restore the body to a 
healthy, vigorous condition. 

Moreover, many things that were once looked upon as 
fads have been regularly incorporated into school work 
and are now considered a vital and valuable part of it. 

Schools were originally established for purely academic 

instruction. In harmony with that standard as originally 

developed, we had accepted without question 

sta'yidard^*^ the idea that nothing was education that did 

not lead in a straight line to a college degree. 

More than that, the only degree that was looked upon with 



SCHOOL WASTE 229 

full respect was that of Bachelor of Arts, which demanded 
Greek as a prime requirement. It is not very long since 
one college after another admitted that a man might be 
educated even if he could not read Homer in the original. 

Yet, even after that emancipation, other degrees were 
looked upon with suspicion. A Bachelor of Science might 
have gained the power to thread railroads through moun- 
tains and across continents, to build ships that go down 
to the sea, or clear a passage for them through the Isthmus 
of Panama, — he might have power to do all this and yet 
the title of the educated man, the master's degree goes to 
the individual who, shut away from the world's great 
activities, passes his life among his books. 

The world needs a certain percentage of people who 
shall give their lives to purely scholastic pursuits, who 
shall do the theorizing for the world, who shall deal with 
matters abstractly intellectual. But the percentage of that 
type really needed is much smaller than the educational 
practice has estimated. 

We have made the mistake of thinking that this was 
the only mold in which the educated, trained individual 
could be cast. As a result, we have been sending too many 
people to college. Walk with your thinking eyes open 
through any college campus and you will meet scores of 
students whose faces tell that they are spending days in 
studying things that find no response in their natures, to 
fit them for an occupation which does not interest them. 

They are like the traveler who gazed with unseeing eyes 
upon the glorious Alps, but "saw no Mont Blanc, for there 
was no Mont Blanc within him." Yet these same young 
men and women have in them possibilities for development 
in directions along which the world needs their serv- 
ice. They have fallen victims to the idea that the only 



230 THE TEACHER 

education is that which scholastic attainments give. To go 
to college has been held the proper thing to do and so 
they make great sacrifices and go, against the cry of 
their own natures to do the conventional thing. When they 
are through, it is often too late for them to follow effi- 
ciently the line of work in which they might have done 
exceptionally well had there been someone to help them 
listen to the voice of their own nature. 

The schools are largely responsible for this tremendous 
waste in human activity, for they have habitually held up 
the standard of college as the only perfect one. 

There is a growing opinion that too much time is spent 
in school with far too paltry results. There have been 
countless suggestions made of ways to shorten 
of^*Time^ the time and to turn well trained energy sooner 
into the nation's activities. Some schools have 
experimented upon eliminating the eighth grade, others 
have advocated the reduction of the high school course to 
three years; again, the same shortening of time has been 
recommended for the colleges. 

It is certain beyond argument that the time allowed for 
formal education is fully long enough for the average mind 
and altogether too long, even with present methods, for 
those of higher mental potentiality. This is fully illus- 
trated w^here a wise elective system allows the individual 
to move along limited only by his own powers. 

The average age of those entering college falls some- 
where between eighteen and nineteen years. Recently a 
young man not considered at all wonderful graduated from 
one of the old eastern colleges at eighteen, having taken 
his college course in three years. He entered at fifteen from 
a western preparatory school without a condition and with 
considerable advanced credit in modern languages. Fur- 



SCHOOL WASTE 231 

ther, this boy was not a "grind" ; he took his work easily 
and happily, joining in the social life of school and 
college. 

He does not stand alone. Everj^ college and school 
could cite instances in which surprising progress w^as made 
by individuals when the hide-bound rules of the system 
were ignored. 

It becomes plain, then, that more rapid advancement 
should regularly be made in our schools. Greater con- 
servation of energy is necessary ; perhaps entirely new 
methods. 

Removal of the feeble-minded, the deaf, the physically 
sub-normal, will accomplish something, but the reform must 
go deeper, even to the very roots of the educational sys- 
tem. The problem must be worked out in the experimental 
laboratory of education, the schools themselves, and the 
teachers must be the workers. 

Every now and then someone claims to have discovered 
the full solution. Each of these confident answers should 
be carefully studied, for there will be some grain of 
sustaining truth in all of them. 

The pupils of ]Maria Montessori make such progress as 
puts our public schools to blush. Her first success was 
in a "Mind-straightening School," attended by feeble- 
minded children from the asylums of Rome, as well as by 
private pupils sent thither by their parents. For two years 
she was directress of this institution. The claim is that 
she taught the children to read and write so that they could 
pass the same examinations that children of their age were 
expected to pass in the public schools. The secret she 
explains herself: 

"It was that the boys from the asylum had followed 



232 THE TEACHER 

a different path from that pursued in the pubHc schools. 
They had been aided in their psychic development, while 
the normal children had been hampered and depressed. I 
thought that if, one day, the special education which had 
thus marvelously developed the idiots could be applied to 
the development of normal children, the miracle would 
vanish, and the gulf between the inferior and the normal 
mentality would reappear, never again to be bridged. 
While every one was admiring the progress of my idiots, 
I was meditating on the reasons that could keep the happy 
and healthy common-school children on so low a level that 
my unhappy pupils were able to stand beside them." 

Then followed seven years' hard study in experimental 
psychology, pedagogic anthropology, and careful investi- 
gation of methods followed in the training of normal 
children. 

This is not the place to describe in detail her theory or 
her methods. The results prove that she has at least made 
a stride forward. Her average Italian pupil of four learns 
to write in six weeks, writing all simple words and usually 
beginning with ink. At the end of about three months 
most of them write well; after six months they equal the 
children of the third grade in the public schools. The 
son of an Italian marchesa, an American by birth, at the 
age of three and a half can read and write both in Italian 
and English. Most w^onderful of all, there are, accord- 
ing to reports, no naughty children in these schools, and 
yet there are no corrections, no rewards, no punishments. 
Maria Montessori claims that the reason for this is "Be- 
cause they are all doing what they like to do. Ecco !" 

The son of Dr. Sidis, of Harvard University, was looked 
upon as a remarkable example of super-intellectuality. Dr. 



SCHOOL WASTE 23^ 

Sidis claims that the child is only a normal boy ; that 
thousands of others could enter Harvard at the same age 
if their early training were what it should be. If this 
statement is true, what a commentary upon our educational 
system ! Since he believes it, what w^onder that his recent 
book criticizes with biting sarcasm the awful failure of our 
vast, expensive, and much praised educational structure? 

Enormous waste is apparent when a comparison is made 
between the vast sums of money expended by the nation for 
public schools and the relative few who take 
complete advantaoje of the education provided. School 
A study of public school management made 
recently by the Russell Sage Foundation revealed that 
only fifty-five per cent of our children get above the fifth 
grade. This means that forty-five per cent leave school 
with but the elementary knowledge of reading and writing. 
Further investigation showed that while many leave for 
the assigned reason that they are needed as wage earners, 
in a large number of cases this is not the true cause. They 
escape the school prison as soon as they have "served their 
time" to the required legal age, and sooner, if they or 
their parents can devise some means of eluding the truant 
officers. 

Strange to say, other investigations reveal that many 
of these children are later found in evening schools study- 
ing practical branches or in business colleges and trade 
or technical schools. They turn their backs upon the sys- 
tem provided by the state and assume the responsibility of 
their own education according to their individual needs. 

Economically this argues great waste when these chil- 
dren, in the years when they should be receiving the best 
training for the life which is to be theirs, feel that the 
opportunities do not fit their needs, that they are throwing 



234 THE TEACHER 

away their time, and that they must get away from it all. 
If later they seek this training in the hours which belong 
to them for recreation, it proves that there is an education 
which they need and which they would gladly take. 

Social conditions have changed to such an extent that 
many things necessary for the full development of chil- 
dren cannot be done by the home. Little by 

Change in .,.,.. , , *^ 

Social little responsibilities that once belonged ex- 

Conditions . ^ . " 

clusively there have been shifted to the school. 

The first feeling of the teacher when discovering this 

was one of rebellion, of indignation. Before allowing this 

to become the final attitude, careful consideration is 

desirable. 

The change in our civilization is partly responsible for 
these conditions. Two or three generations ago the 
home, in a natural, wholesome way, gave its children a 
training in what might be called the occupation habit. 
There were chores for the boys, wood to be cut and brought 
in, water to draw, fires to build, and, on the farm, countless 
things to be done for the stock and about the fields. The 
girls cooked, churned, and swept and gave their leisure 
to sewing, spinning, and weaving. 

The last twenty-five years mark a decided change in do- 
mestic relations touching both the rich and the poor. No 
matter what one's station in life, conditions are such as 
to take away from the young countless activities which 
were once theirs by right of their place in the family. 
The modern city home, no matter how humble, leaves little 
share for the growing boy in active labor. Where the cook- 
ing is done by gas and the water drawn from a tap in the 
wall, wood-pile and well vanish. 

In the homes of the wealthy, the case is even worse; 



SCHOOL WASTE 235 

everything is done by servants, and the sole obhgation 
resting upon young people is that of crowding into each 
day as much of entertainment and self-indulgence as golf, 
tennis, yachts, and automobiles make possible. 

One by one the responsibilities in the training of chil- 
dren have been dropped by the home. Politics, business, 
or social demands upon the wealthy have removed the chil- 
dren from the former nearness to parents, while the need 
for providing for a family under modern conditions has 
done the same for the poor, leaving only among the so- 
called middle class anything approaching the close parental 
relations of our grandfathers' households. Even these 
homes have suffered decided modification. 

Many of the things that have been turned over to the 
school doubtless will permanently remain there, — probably 
it is best that they should. 

It becomes, then, the duty of every teacher to look the 
educational situation fairly in the face, and to recognize the 
fact that in many ways present methods have 

Til- n 1 ^ n -II n 1 Attitude 

outlived their usefulness, have fallen far be- Toward 
hind the needs of the civilization of today. 
Things cannot be changed as in a twinkling of an eye 
and we shall simply have to do the best we can with con- 
ditions as they exist. To accomplish even this requires 
constant study, constant self-criticism, constant endeavor. 
It behooves us to treat with respect every experiment 
of every earnest worker looking to the betterment of con- 
ditions. But it is equally necessary not to accept as pure 
gold every glittering theory that is flashed triumphantly 
before us. No one of them will contain the whole truth ; no 
one answer will ever be the final one, for progress has in it 
no element of permanency. Little by little what has out- 



^36 THE TEACHER 

lived its usefulness will be discarded and better methods 
substituted. Much has already been accomplished; more 
and more will be done until the schools satisfy modern needs 
and the present waste is eliminated. 



CHAPTER XVI 

HOW THE SCHOOLS ARE ELIMINAT- 
ING WASTE 

No BUSINESS enterprise would consider itself successful 
if large sums of money were tied up in plants that were 
idle half the hours of a working day, and _ , 

, T 1 , . 1 Productive- 

yet, for ejenerations the public has submitted ness of 

. ..... Equipment 

to such waste by investing its millions in large 
buildings, perfect equipment, and spacious grounds, and 
making them productive only about five hours a day for 
eight or nine, or, at the most, ten months in the year. 

Thinkers have at last realized the Heedlessness of such 
waste, have awakened to the fact that conditions have 
changed and that schools are far behind in the march of 
progress. 

As a result, educational plants are working full time in 
most large cities and are turning out a larger product of 
useful citizens. 

When academic work was the only thing attempted by 

the schools, then, no doubt, five hours was a long, long 

day to children, too long for the cramped 

existence which school discipline demanded. Lengthened 

. . Day 

With the introduction of supervised athletics, 

directed play, manual training, and domestic science, the 

variety of interests relieves the strain and allows the school 

day longer possibilities. 

237 



238 THE TEACHER 

The introduction of these activities has changed the atti- 
tude of children toward school, and yet still greater prog- 
ress is needed. The idea is too often in the 
ts^Lif'e mind of the child that school is something to 

be endured because it is good for him, because 
he must be prepared for life which is supposed to begin 
when eight or ten years hence he gets out of school. Each 
day school work is considered a necessary task to be gotten 
through with in some way, either with credit or without, but 
gotten through with so the child may have the freedom 
to live the rest of the time. 

This is all wrong. We have no more right to say that 
the life of the child begins when he leaves school than we 
have to insist that the life of a plant begins when it first 
bursts into bloom. 

In a properly conducted school a child should be hap- 
pier than he could be anywhere else. Ideally, the condi- 
tions are made for him and he is pursuing his own deepest 
interests with children of his own age whose interests are 
common with his, and the teacher is there, like a special 
Providence, to see that those conditions are kept right for 
him. 

Is this an honest picture of our schools today .^^ 

Someone has remarked, perhaps facetiously, that the 
ambition of the educational system of France 
ism^"^"^'' ^'^s ^^^^ ^^^^^ child shall be giving the same 
answer to the same question at the same time 
all over the country. The American educational system 
might have been originally modelled upon a similar plan. 
It struggled for uniformity, for clear-cut grading, for 
the fixing of hard and fast boundaries between classes, for 
promotion of all by the same test. If this pupil was 
exceptionally bright, the brick of suppression was put 



ELIMINATING WASTE 239 

upon Ills hcr.d to keep him down to the average of the class 
to which some higher authority (Heaven only knows by 
what sacred laying on of hands he gained the right) had 
committed him. If he was dull or slow, he was dragged, 
like a Cook's tourist at the hand of his guide, past the 
educational v.onders which he scarcely saw. 

The day for tliat kind of thing is rapidly passing and we 
are learning that there are as many different types of 
cliildren as there are individuals; that an accurate classi- 
fication would really put but one pupil in each type. 

The unit of our present school organization is the 
class ; tlie unit of the new education must be the individual. 
Tlic old method stands for uniformity, not always even 
for unity; identity rather than symmetry; a narrowed 
viev/, not a connected view. The individual has been lost 
sight of and the boys and girls have been treated as 
tl.ough they existed for the schools, not the schools for 
them. 

The kindergarten took the first step toward emancipa- 
tion. It taught the rights of the individual and the de- 
sirability of allowing the child to grow and develop accord- 
ing to his own peculiar characteristics, in a natural, 
unconscious way. 

The spirit of the kindergarten is right, although it 
cannot be too emphatically stated that much of the prac- 
tice of the kindergarten is wrong. This is not the fault 
of the theory but of the number of incompetent people 
who go into the work. Natural development to them too 
often means unrestrained and undirected action ; the will 
of the child is allowed to lead; he is entertained and 
amused; his desires and whims never thwarted. Such 
teachers, as was said before, fail to discriminate between 
the mil of the child and the nature of the child. 



240 THE TEACHER 

Yet, in spite of all its abuses, the fact still remains that 
the fundamental idea of the kindergarten is right. De- 
pending upon the play instinct, the child is kept constantly 
interested. He does not go to school "like a quarry slave 
scourged to his dungeon," but the kindergarten, even 
though it be a poor one, becomes the center of his daily 
life. He looks forward to it with eagerness in the morn- 
ing, he enjoys every moment of the session, and he plays 
kindergarten all the afternoon. 

What the kindergartners call the play instinct, is, in a 
broader sense, an activity interest. Every child is filled 
with it, bubbling over with it. The mother 
fnU'i^est ^t home is haunted with the question, "What 

can I dof The too frequent answer is, "Run 
away and don't bother me." The general practice of 
the schools is to suppress this interest and subdue it to 
passivity. 

In the kindergarten this activity interest is not wasted 
but is turned to good educational account. The so-called 
connecting class carries it over into the first grade, 
and it is safe to say that this same vitalizing activity 
interest holds, with reasonable power, through the third 
grade. 

There is a recognized break at the beginning of the 
fourth year. Here restlessness, idleness, the pull of out- 
side interest, truancy, and other troubles begin. The eager- 
ness for school abates, and from there on through the 
eighth grade the problem is a serious one. Formalism is 
intensified here, and we are still hampered by the idea that 
the children must be fitted intellectually into a certain mold 
which the system prescribes. Order takes precedence of 
interest ; activity must be suppressed for the sake of quiet. 
The marked indlvidualitv of the child here is less evident. 



ELIMINATING WASTE Ml 

He becomes self-conscious, loses confidence in himself, and 
so grows restive and dissatisfied with school. 

This is the fault of the schools. They are wasting and 
have been wasting for years golden opportunities for full 
and complete development of the individual child. 

Under present conditions the child is pulling and strug- 
gling against the will of the home and the authority of 
the school which is driving him whither he would not go ; 
driving him against the call of his own nature which he 
hears plainer than they do. 

There is but one solution to the problem; let all who 
deal with young people learn to listen to the nature of the 
individual child, and by that is meant the nature of the 
child, not merely his will or whim. Having recognized it, 
help him to follow its dictates. 

This means individualism, increased, intensified individu- 
alism. It means humanizing every step of the work. It 
means making school a place to which the children will 
come gladly, eagerly, because here they are happiest, here 
they can follow the dictates of their natures, here live, — 
live freely, joyously, every day. 

Teachers must cease to be task-masters; they must be- 
come leaders. They must remember that the person who 
drives usually goes behind, and that is exactly where he 
belongs. 

The universal acceptance of manual training and do- 
mestic science as a necessary part of school training is 
the present general way of supplying a valu- 
able and practical application of this activity Tr^Jinfng 
interest. There is no need here of entering 
into any discussion of this branch of education, for its 
importance and its educational value are very clearly pres- 
ent in the minds of all teachers. 



U2 THE TEACHER 

There are some dangers connected with it, as there are 
with all good things, and it may be well to call attention 
to them. 

It is much easier to use the hands than to use the brain. 
Mental tenseness necessary to producing results is weary- 
ing and peculiarly distasteful to tjie untrained mind. 
Manual training offers an easy escape from mental strain. 
To plan all this work so as to demand constant mental activ- 
it}^ is the part of those in charge of this branch. In a 
shop, where the getting of a finished product as quickly as 
possible for the sake of the compensating wage is desirable, 
it may be wise to acquire imitative manual facility. That 
is not enough in an educational institution. The child 
must gain in the shops and in the domestic science depart- 
ment a certain power which will enable him to go on inde- 
pendently to new and different, although allied activities. 
The brain must be trained to guide the hand. It is not 
enough to make of the hand a facile instrument guided 
by some intelligence outside the personality to whom the 
hand belongs. 

Mechanical drawing, which underlies so much' of man- 
ual training, must be something more than preparing 
beautiful looking plates which are nothing more or less 
than copies of other beautiful plates. The student must 
be trained to visualize, to see in his flat drawing, the solid 
object of which this is a projection. He should be able 
to trace each line to its proper place in the figure of three 
dimensions and know^ the reasons for it. 

Miss Amelia Brigham, the originator of box furniture, 
furniture made from the boxes that can be found piled 
outside of any store, lives, from choice, in a small apart- 
ment opposite Hell Gate, in New York City. She is much 



ELIMINATING WASTE ^43 

interested in the life of the community in which she Hves 
and is a real part of it. Opposite her home is one of 
New York's breathing places, a large park. She obtained 
permission from the authorities to open a shop in an old 
house standing in this park. With the assistance of philan- 
thropic individuals, she equipped twenty woodworking 
benches and invited the boys of the neighborhood to use 
them under her direction. 

Applicants were many and the early arrivals had the 
benches, the others waiting around until they could catch 
a vacancy. 

The lumber from these boxes is not of prime quality. 
It has knots and nails and nail-holes; it is often split and 
is not always of the most convenient lengths. But the 
boys attack it and the finished product shows none of the 
original imperfections. 

In this work Miss Brigham encountered a peculiar con- 
dition. The boys who had never had any manual training 
in the public schools were the persevering, careful workers. 
Most of those who had had any bench-work in the public 
schools fell by the wayside early. They were so annoyed 
by the difficulties presented by the poor grade material that 
they gave up in despair. They were used to selected lum- 
ber of convenient length; they wanted only the luxury of 
manual labor. 

There may be a suggestion here worth considering. Is 
manual training following the weaknesses of modern civili- 
zation and making everything easy.'^ The purpose of it 
all should, like every other branch of education, be tested 
by the gain in power, — power to use the brain on practical 
problems, power to overcome difficulties, the moral power to 
stick to a thing until it is accomplished. The aim of man- 



^44 THE TEACHER 

ual training is not the getting of a finished product, but the 
education of mind and hand, as well as a training in 
character. 

By giving to young people the things which they should 

have, many who now leave school early in the grades might 

Technical ^^ kept longer and sent out well trained men- 

Schoois tally for the life which is theirs naturally in 

the social economy. 

Several cities have attempted to meet a part of the 
difficulty through technical high schools. Cleveland was 
one of the pioneers and, as conditions in that city are prob- 
ably about what the}^ are in other manufacturing places, 
it will serve as an example of the movement in this 
direction. 

The committee appointed to examine carefully the gov- 
ernment, supervision, and course of study of the Cleveland 
public schools and make suggestions, learned that one-half 
the students left school at the end of the sixth year. 
They discovered the appalling mortality between the eighth 
and ninth years ; they noted the high percentage of fail- 
ures in academic work of those who survived for the ninth 
year, and saw that of the total number who enter the high 
school, a majority fall by the wayside before the end of 
the second year. 

The original plan was to establish a Manual Training 
High School similar to others already in existence. But 
the committee, going at its work intelligently and earnestly, 
soon found that conditions demanded something more. For 
this reason, even the name was changed and the result 
stands today as the Technical High School. 

It is planned especially to meet the needs of both boys 
and girls who expect to end their formal education here, 
and so is emancipated from the tyrannical rules of the 



ELIMINATING WASTE 245 

colleges. It is free and independent ; may do whatever it 
pleases in whatever way it pleases; is bound by no conven- 
tions; has but one aim, and that is the rendering of the best 
service to a large class of young people whose vital needs 
the high schools have practically ignored. 

For the first two years it follows somewhat closely the 
ordinary work of a manual training school, with some 
modifications of academic work. The last two years it is 
practically a trade school. It is located on the edge of a 
great manufacturing district and is well equipped m a 
building planned especially for the purpose. 

There are the usual accommodations found in any manual 
training high school, including class-rooms, laboratories 
for chemistry and physics, exceptional athletic equipment, 
including gymnasium, running track, showers, and locker- 
rooms. There are wood-working rooms for joinery, turn- 
ing, cabinet-making and pattern-making, a well-equipped 
machine shop, a foundrv provided with cupola for melting 
iron, and a brass foundry. The drafting rooms are so 
located as to be convenient to the shops. There is also a 
lunch-room with kitchen and serving-rooms. 

The department for girls has for its basis domestic and 
industrial arts, and around these studies the rest of the 
work is grouped. The course in cooking covers the prepa- 
ration and analvsis of foods, the study of food values, the 
preparation and serving of complete meals. There are 
courses in home planning and house decoration, including 
the study of furniture, pictures, draperies, and ornament. 
These are conducted with especial reference to economy and 
good taste. A course in home nursing includes first aid to 
the injured and care of invalids and children. Keeping of 
household accounts, economic home management, and mar- 
keting also receive attention. In fact, these courses point 



^46 THE TEACHER 

to the end when a girl has forced upon her the care of 
home and family, in the hope of giving her some intelligent 
preparation for these duties. 

The board was peculiarly audacious in choosing teachers 
for this school. They did not demand college degrees, 
experience in teaching, or t3^pewritten copies 
Teaclfers^ of letters of recommendation. For each posi- 
tion they sought the man or woman whom they 
thought would deal most intelligently, most forcefully, 
most humanly, with the problem. They cared nothing for 
previous state of servitude, but they cared for the bigness 
of the individual. 

For instance, they secured an expert chemist from some 
large manufacturing plant. He had never taught a day 
in his life, but he taught chemistry there with a force and 
enthusiasm that was contagious. One man whose son took 
the course said : "My boy works all day in school, but that 
isn't enough, so he has a laborator}^ at home. He may 
blow the house up before he gets through, but he's learning 
chemistry." 

This technical High School opened with 800 pupils. 
The six academic high schools in the city showed a total 
decrease in enrollment of only 47, which meant 
AttemJance ^^ increase of over 700 in the high school popu- 
lation. A part of this may be accounted for 
by the natural growth of the city, but not all of it. 

Another attempt to meet the needs of the individual has 

been made through the opening of commercial high schools, 

in the hope of giving to those expecting to 
Commercial , ^ , j n •. , • • - 

High take up omce work some dennite trammg m 

things they will need to know. These put 

more stress upon teaching a would-be stenographer to spell 

correctly than in giving her instruction in the chemistry 



ELIMINATING WASTE 247 

of foods. They see to it that the future bookkeeper can 
add a column of figures twice with the same result, even 
if she has not a scientific knowledge of the different kinds 
of levers. 

The movement is an interesting one and meets the ap- 
proval of a large class of educators. On the other hand, 
however, stands a considerable number who, 
while thej^ have no quarrel with the methods in Against 
an}^ of these schools and believe in the adapta- 
tion of the work to the individual, jet seriously question 
the advisability of thus segregating these various interests. 
They hold that the results would be much better, much 
stronger, more far-reaching, if high schools were divided 
geographically, and this special work done in departments. 
They point out the danger of confusing the mechanical 
learning of a trade with education, which should mean 
the highest training for mind, body, and soul. 

Colleges were the first to discover that there was no 
reason why their doors should be closed three months each 
year. Summer schools followed, and the Uni- 
versity of Chicago set the excellent example of Lengthened 
an unbroken year with four terms of equal 
value, the student being allowed to attend such of them as 
best suited his convenience, or all of them if he desired. 
For those who are working their way, the plan is most 
practical, for almost any other time is better than the 
summer for earning money. 

Simultaneously with the lengthened year of the college, 
there sprang up all over the country summer camps, all of 
which provide some opportunity for study. 
It was discovered that the young mind was fchiljil'^ 
far better off for having some systematic, 
supervised mental activity during the summer vacation. 



248 THE TEACHER 

Maine, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, and other 
states have estabhshed these camps in their most charming 
spots, and through them much energy and valuable time 
that formerly went to waste, is conserved to the general 
good of the community. 

Following close upon this has come the opening of sum- 
mer schools in important centers of the larger cities. 

The question is now prominent in the minds of educators 
as to the wisdom of abolishing entirely the long summer 
vacation. Is there any reason for its existence in modern 
civilization.'^ Is it not merely a survi\al of a custom that 
had a reason for being when it was instituted, because 
the assistance of even the children was necessary to the 
maintenance of the home in the pioneer days, when the 
living of the family had to be forced out of the soil by 
manual labor .f' 

A change to a year of four quarters with a week's vaca- 
tion between each two would make the public school equip- 
ment much more productive. 

The public playground movement has thrown open the 
school grounds to the children and the buildings are being 
used for summer sessions of real school, modi- 
Grounds ^^^ somewhat by temperature, but nevertheless 
real school. To be sure, this has resulted in 
the trampling down of some "Keep off the grass" signs, 
and the demolishing of ornamental school lawns, but the 
by-product is visible in happy, healthy children. 

Originally these movements were in the slums and for 
the children of the very poor, to the utter forgetting of 
the suffering, neglected children of the Avell-to-do. But 
even they are now coming in for their share of attention. 
Recently, in a very prosperous neighborhood, a woman of 



ELIMINATING WASTE 249 

wealth bought and turned over to the management of a 
church a large lot to be used as a playground for the 
children of the neighborhood. 

It is only a few years since evening schools were occa- 
sional and unusual. Today they are a recognized part of 
the definite S3^stem of all advanced city schools. Once their 
instruction was limited to the simplest elemen- 
tary education, and attended largely by for- f^hodrs^ 
eigners learning the language. 

Perhaps no better idea of what is being done in the 
evening schools at present can be given than in quoting 
from the report of a superintendent of schools in a city of 
500,000 inhabitants. 

"Special attention is given to foreigners of various 
nationalities who wish to learn to read, write, and speak the 
English language. Teachers who are conversant with both 
languages are engaged for classes of Arme- 
nians, Bohemians, Germans, Greeks, Hebrews, stude^nts 
Hungarians, Italians, and Poles. 

"The subjects taught in the elementary schools are read- 
ing, writing, arithmetic, spelling, history, geography, Eng- 
lish grammar, and composition as applied to 
letter writing. ^l^^^' 

"In the high schools, courses are offered in 
English, French, German, Latin, and Spanisii, bookkeep- 
ing, commercial law, stenography, typewriting, mechan- 
ical and architectural draughting, gas engine construction, 
blueprint reading, algebra, arithmetic, geometry, trigo- 
nometry, workshop calculations, carpentry, cabinet-making, 
forge work, pattern making, wood turning, machine shop 
practice, physics, chemistry, cooking, sewing, dressmaking, 
penmanship, letter wTiting, spelling, geography, and civil- 



250 THE TEACHER 

service preparation. Besides these branches, swimming and 
gymnastic classes are open to both sexes in the several school 
gj^mnasiums. 

" In many cities the school buildings have been opened in 
the evening as social centers. This has been done for the 
benefit of the young people in the neighbor- 
Social hood who are no lon^^er in school. One school 
Centers p i i i t • 

may stand as a type of the best work done in 
this direction. 

"The Center was open five nights a week. The Boys' 
Department had the use of the building on Monday and 
Wednesda3^ evenings, the Girls' Department on 
Classes Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and on Sat- 

urday evenings the boys and girls alternated 
in the use of the building. In the Boys' Department 
classes were successfully conducted during the winter in 
carpentry, mechanical drawing, hammered brass, and gym- 
nastics. A basket-ball team, two debating clubs, and a 
branch of the Boy Scouts were organized and became 
largely self-directing. In the Girls' Department, classes 
in millinery, domestic science, gymnastics, and folk dancing 
offered a line of work which proved most attractive. New- 
comb, volley ball and basket-ball teams w^ere organized, and 
these, together with a large chorus and two self-directing 
literary clubs, furnished recreation for the girls. Especial 
mention should be made of the classes in domestic science, 
which were an unqualified success. 

"Saturday night was devoted to social purposes, and 
everything was done to give the boys and girls a pleasant 
time, although they came on separate evenings. A dancing 
lesson was given every Saturday night from 7 until 8, 
and although the boys had to dance together, as did the 
girls, considerable proficiency was attained. After the 



ELIMINATING WASTE 251 

dancing was over an entertainment lasting about an hour 
and consisting usually of a concert, a stereopticon travel- 
talk, recitations, or a party of some kind, was given. 

"In addition, the possibility of using the buildings for 
the improvement and pleasure of the parents of the vicinity 
occurred to someone else, and lectures, entertainments, 
and social gatherings have been instituted. Much of this 
activity has originated with the women's clubs interested 
in civic improvement. They have taken the responsibilit}^ 
of the programmes and have enlisted many public-spirited 
people in the movement. In all this the teachers have 
cooperated." 

Realizing that a sound mind, to reach full efficiency, 

must dwell in a sound body, the schools have assumed much 

of the physical responsibility of its children. 

1 ■ 1 it"- Physical 

Regular, supervised athletics have become care of 

so definitely a part of all school life today that 

this branch of the physical training of children needs no 

elaboration here, but some special phases of the subject are 

worthy of attention. 

Here and there certain schools have succeeded in getting 
medical inspection ; others have trained nurses who care 
for the health of the children. Through these, contagious 
diseases are quickly discovered, isolated, and means taken 
to prevent their spread. Some have established school 
clinics, others use the free hospitals where simple opera- 
tions, such as removal of tonsils and adenoids, are per- 
formed, and many simple ailments treated and cured. 

The introduction of baths in school buildings makes for 
the habit of cleanliness, and so for improved health. 

The eyes are given careful attention, and many a child 
once considered stupid has proved only near-sighted or a 
victim of astigmatism- 



252 THE TEACHER 

The teeth are watched and their condition brought to 
the attention of parents, to be looked after through the 
home, if the home can afford it; if not, the school takes 
care of the matter through its dental clinic. 

Proper feeding is another essential, and the furnishing 
of wholesome, nourishing luncheons at a very low price 
is another feature of modern education. 

In these and in other ways of looking after the body, 
the schools are trying to watch the interests of the normal 
child, and energy and intellectual power once wasted are 
now conserved to a lifting of the general average, to the 
bringing of the schools to a higher degree of efficiency. 

The tendency of every reform, no matter how desirable 
the reform may be, is to go too far. This has been the 
history of nearly every movement recorded in 
Opposition history. 

When we contemplate the responsibility al- 
ready assumed by the schools, when we read the articles 
advocating further assumption of responsibility, w^e are 
constrained to ask, where shall we stop.^ All the things 
done are desirable. Most of them the homes will not attend 
to. Shall the schools assume these responsibilities? If not 
all of them, then where shall the line be drawn .'^ 

Already there has arisen a party or a faction in opposi- 
tion to medical inspection, to too much paternalism on the 
part of the schools. This is bound to grow stronger, for 
practically all such reforms encounter opposition. These 
progressive changes in our schools are now encountering 
that opposition. There will be more of it, and the effect 
will be restraining and clarifying. Communities will select 
the things that are desirable for the schools to do; the 
opposition will strengthen determination to carry these 
desirable things to fulfillment, and it will, at the same time, 



ELIMINATING WASTE 25B 

protect us from going to the extreme in our search for 
the best. 

The teachers are in the practical laboratory where these 
attempts at reform are being tried out. They are the 
experts who must decide which of these experiments will 
stand the test of practical application, which are reason- 
able and in harmony with the preservation of the home and 
its responsibilities. 



CHAPTER XVII 
SPECIAL SCHOOLS 

The assumption of the school system is that every child 
is normal or by wise corrective measures can be restored 
to the normal. But outside the reach of the ordinary care 
of medical inspection and regular athletics, outside the 
assistance of proper feeding and clothing, beyond the aid 
of ordinary teaching methods, is a large class of children 
still unconsidered. 

The circle of their lives is narrowed by some physical 
or mental limitation. But they are, nevertheless, entitled 
to the fullest development of which their proscribed natures 
are capable. 

The old system paid no attention to this class, but scat- 
tered the individuals wherever they seemed to belong, either 
according to age or size, to the further stunting of the 
already dwarfed natures and to the serious detriment of the 
normal children. 

We are learning not to expect the child with imperfect 
eyes to have the same efficiency as the child with unimpaired 
vision; that the deaf or the semi-deaf cannot compete on 
equal terms with those possessed of sharp hearing; that 
the healthy child can outrun the sickly in the intellectual 
race as w^ell as on the athletic field. 

The thinking world is taking account of all these factors 
and forcing them upon the practical consideration of the 
schools. The deaf, the dumb, the blind, the tuberculous, 

254 



SPECIAL SCHOOLS ^55 

the crippled, are put into schools of their own, where their 
infirmities are considered and teaching given especially 
adapted to them. Here, instead of dragging along, hope- 
less and despairing, far in the rear of those who have no 
such handicap, they are moving happily ahead in lines of 
their own toward their fullest possible development. 

Windows have been thrown wide to the sunshine and the 
air. Open-air schools have been tried with wonderful 
results in increased mental activity and corresponding 
attainment. Schools for the mentally deficient have come 
to stay. 

The special schools are accomplishing two things : first, 

the fuller development of the sub-normal children ; second, 

the more rapid ad^'ancement of the others by the removal 

of this drag upon them. 

.Total deafness or even imperfect hearing makes it 

impossible for the child thus afflicted to work to advantage 

under the same conditions as those who hear ^ , ^ ^ . 

Oral Schools 
acutely. For some time the needs of these for the 

. . Deaf 

children for special attention have been heeded. 

In 1899 the legislature of Michigan passed an act pro- 
vidins: for the establishment and maintenance throuo;hout 
the state of schools for the training of deaf children. Such 
schools as have been established, notably those in Detroit 
and Grand Rapids, are oral schools, training the children 
to speech and to lip reading. Approximately the work runs 
parallel with the elementary schools, although the chief 
aim of these schools is to give the children such practical 
training as will serve them in earning their living and 
becoming self-supporting. 

Many of these children do not continue in school even to 
the eighth grade, but up to that time they are given special 
work in English and all elementary branches taught from 



256 THE TEACHER 

the practical standpoint. To this is added a hberal amount 
of manual training to assist them in becoming reasonably 
independent in earning a living. 

A few even continue on into the high school. Here 
they enter regular classes and find themselves able to be 
treated as the other young people are treated, using their 
acquired speech and lip reading very successfully. Two or 
three such students have already been graduated from the 
Central High School in Detroit, doing all their work in 
regular classes. 

As the number of deaf children in a community is small, 
these are gathered from all parts of the city. Coming from 
such distance, provision for the mid-day meal becomes 
imperative. Those interested in this branch of education 
consider that a luncheon, properly served, no matter how 
simple, is of great importance. As the final purpose of the 
school is the fullest development of the children, not merely 
drill in the purely intellectual range of thought, the train- 
ing in good table manners becomes more than desirable. 
That is especially true of those children whose limitations 
in one of their senses makes it more difficult to get this 
kind of education naturally and unconsciously, as other 
children do. 

There are not yet many special schools for the deaf 
attached to the public school system, but their introduc- 
tion marks one more direction in the care of the exceptional 
child at the present occupying so much serious thought. 

In a city where the care of exceptional children has been 

given close attention, a school for crippled children has been 

in existence two years. At first it was held 
School for 1 /. T . t • • 1 

Crippled but for a half-day session, but its success m the 

Children , ti« />ii'ij 

improvement and happiness of the children, 
soon warranted a full-day session. 



SPECIAL SCHOOLS 257 

The children are transported to and from this school, in 
carriages or automobiles, and an outside elevator takes 
them to the school-room, where the day is planned espe- 
cially for their needs. 

Particular attention is paid to hand work, this being 
adapted to the peculiar infirmity of each child. The branch 
in which he is likely to become most proficient is selected, 
for all this looks to the possible earning power of the 
individual later. 

The physical welfare is carefully looked after. Milk 
and biscuits are served at ten o'clock and a warm luncheon 
at noon, followed by half an hour's recreation. After this, 
they are given half an hour's rest in reclining chairs before 
the school work is resumed for the afternoon. 

To assist the teacher in the unusual care of the disabled, 
a nurse is provided. She prepares the luncheon, serves the 
morning milk and biscuits, and assists the children in and 
out of the building. 

The added outdoor life furnished by the rides to and 
from school, the cheerful association with other children 
and with teacher and nurse, and the interesting occupation, 
all combine for decided improvement in the health of the 
children. 

The great influx of foreigners has long been a vexing 
problem in the larger cities. Ordinarily it -has been met 
by placing these strangers in the primary schools for 
grades, where the English is within their reach, ^°rejg^"^ 
until they become sufficiently proficient to con- 
tinue in the grade where they belong intellectually. By this 
method they accept the fate of the primary grade and learn 
as a little child learns. There is not much time to give them 
individual attention and, while their progress is often amaz- 
ingly rapid, still it is slower than it need be. More than 



^58 THE TEACHER 

that, the presence of these pupils is bound to retard the 
progress of the* regular grade. There is, accordingly, 
much waste time and energy to both classes. 

To remedy this evil, in districts where there is a large 
per cent of foreigners, special classes are formed, to the 
great relief of the regular grades and to the more rapid 
advancement of the foreigner. 

So far as known, Detroit, Michigan, was the pioneer in 
establishing a special school for stammerers. This has 

been in operation since 1910. 
lt?m°meJers ^wo rooms in different parts of the city 

were opened and put in charge of teachers 
especially trained. Unlike most special schools, the children 
do not do their regular school work here. Tiiose who need 
the training are divided into groups, each group appear- 
inoc two half-davs each week for technical instruction in 
methods of overcoming their affliction. The teachers each 
have one free day each week which they spend in visiting 
the regular schools to see how well the children are apply- 
ing the specific instruction in their daily work. 

In 1912, the schools reported twenty children as entirely 
cured, as well as decided improvement on the part of all 
who had taken the training. 

The first experiment with open-air schools was made in 
1904, in Charlottenburg, a suburb of Berlin. London fol- 
lowed in 1907 with a similar school. In Janu- 
Schoo'it''' ^^J' 1908, Providence, Rhode Island, opened 

the first school of its kind in this country. 
In December, New York began the work, and from that 
time the movement has become more or less w^idespread. 

The fiffht ag-ainst tuberculosis has had much to do in 
stimulating the movement, although the work is not con- 
fined to children actually suffering from tuberculosis. The 



SPECIAL SCHOOLS 259 

prevention of disease is as important as its cure, and much 
more economical. These schools have taken the children 
suffering from anemia, heart trouble, and scrofula, as well 
as from pulmonary trouble. 

The restoration to health is made the main business, but 
surprising advance, surprising even to the promoters of the 
plan, has been made in studies. 

Mr. Leonard P. Ayres, Associate Director, Department 
of Child Hygiene, Russell Sage Foundation, gives a good 
description of the day's routine in the English school. This 
general plan is followed to a greater or less extent in all 
open-air schools. 

"A suitable place for the new school was chosen in a 
large pine forest on the outskirts of the town. Plain sheds 
were erected which sheltered the children during the rainy 
weather. But in the main the school was kept in the open 
air. Specially skilled teachers were put in charge, and no 
teacher had more than twenty-five pupils. 

"The children reached the school about eight o'clock in 
the morning. Upon their arrival they received a bowl of 
soup and a slice of bread and butter. Classes commenced 
at eight o'clock with an interval of five minutes after every 
half hour of teaching. Instruction was reduced to the 
most necessary subjects and never given for more than two 
consecutive hours. 

"At ten o'clock the children received one or two glasses 
of milk and another slice of bread and butter. After this 
they played about, performed' gymnastic exercises, did 
manual work, and read. Dinner was served at half-past 
twelve, and after dinner the children rested or slept for 
two hours. At three o'clock there were some classes, and 
at four, milk, rye bread, and jam were distributed. The 
rest of the afternoon was devoted to informal instruction 



S60 THE TEACHER 

and play. At seven o'clock came the last meal of the day, 
and then the children returned home." 

One great obstacle to carrying out this work ideally is 
the expense of it. These schools have been made possible 
in America because the efforts of boards of education have 
been supplemented by other organizations and by indi- 
viduals. The expense of food and clothing is often 
defraj^ed by hospitals, various charitable organizations, 
women's clubs, and societies for the prevention and cure of 
tuberculosis. The expense for the extra clothing necessary 
for life in the open is no small item. In some places the build- 
ings for the experiment are the gift of individuals possessed 
of deep interest in child welfare. These appreciate the heavy 
demand made upon boards of education for money and 
realize that they cannot, in justice to the taxpayer, go too 
deeply into expensive experiments. These individuals have 
faith in the open-air schools; by backing that faith finan- 
ciall}^, they hope to demonstrate to the general public the 
necessity of such individual treatment, and so prove the 
experiment not an extravagance, but a valuable bit of civic 
economy. 

The results have exceeded the expectations of the most 
hopeful. All report decided improvement within a very 
few weeks, in appetite, temperamental conditions, and in 
intellectual activity. 

In one school, out of 107 pupils suffering from various 
diseases, 74 were reported as either entirely cured or vastly 
improved during the three months that the school was in 
session. Statistics gathered from various open-air schools 
show a corresponding stimulus in mental activity and sur- 
prising progress in studies. ' 

It has also been pretty fully demonstrated that when 
these children are returned to the regular schools they 



SPECIAL SCHOOLS 261 

rapidly deteriorate. This should prove conclusively that 
the conditions to which the ordinary child is subjected are 
far from conducive to his best physical development and 
consequently to his highest intellectual advancement. 

Independent of what has been done for the sub-normal 
child, the effect of the open-air movement upon schools in 
general has been marked. Even where there are not regular 
open-air schools, there are frequently outdoor classes and 
opportunities to study in the open. New school buildings 
are erected with great windows which can be flung w ide open 
instead of with small loop-holes in the wall. There is more 
outdoor play, and in various ways the fresh air is allowed 
to blow through our somewhat musty educational system. 

The special schools already discussed have their origin 

in physical defects of children which make their treatment 

with the physically normal both unwise and .. 

^ '^ "^ Mental and 

UniUSt. Moral 

TIT- 1-11 1 • Delinquents 

In addition, there are many children the vic- 
tims of mental and moral obliquities and deficiencies who 
cry out for special consideration and for treatment fitted 
to their failings. 

Almost every school is doing something toward meeting 
this situation ; some have gone farther than others, but all 
are headed in the right direction, each organization apply- 
ing special instruction where the local demand is most 
imperative. 

Some administrations make a difference between truant 
schools and ungraded schools. Others have but the one, 
using the latter name, purposely avoiding the 
objectionable suggestion of the namC; truant, schoois^^ 

Where the two schools exist, the truant school 
is maintained for the good of delinquent and disobedient 
pupils. Its purpose is reformatory and many children yield 



262 THE TEACHER 

to its influence and are then passed on to the ungraded 
school, whence they are later promoted to some regular 
grade. 

The purpose of the ungraded school is to treat the indi- 
vidual who, either from bad home conditions, from enforced 
absence or absence through truancy, or for any other 
cause, is unable to do successfully the assignment of the 
grade in which his age would place him. 

When the city is large enough, several ungraded schools 
are established. One city of something over 100,000 inhab- 
itants reports during a recent year sixteen rooms for 
retarded pupils. This same city reports 442 pupils in 
ungraded rooms in the one year, and 280 in the following 
year. While all this decrease cannot be credited to the 
ungraded schools, it does establish beyond a doubt that a 
large percentage of those who have individual attention 
are able to undertake their regular grade and afterwards 
maintain their standing in it. 

In a certain city maintaining but one type of these 
schools, the children attending are selected upon the follow- 
ing basis: 

"Class one, habitual truants from any school in which 
they are enrolled as pupils; class two, children who while 
attending school are incorrigibly turbulent, disobedient, or 
insubordinate, or are vicious and immoral in conduct; class 
three, children who are not attending any school, and who 
habitually frequent streets and other public places, having 
no lawful business, employment, or occupation." 

It is evident that the class of children thus gathered 
require special attention morally and the child who is 
merely backward is bound to suff^er in such association. In 
the particular city mentioned, these are taken care of in a 
special school, which will be considered later. 



SPECIAL SCHOOLS 263 

Every city has a group of children who have no homes 
or whose homes are worse than none at alL These are 
nevertheless material for citizenship. If it is 
to be developed worthily, the public must schoofs^' 
assum.e the responsibility. 

In this direction, also, individuals and institutions are 
working in connection with the public school system to the 
saving of this class of children. 

In one city, the personal gift of two philanthropic 
women has made it possible "to establish a parental school 
for boys which will furnish them a home, helpful environ- 
ment, and an opportunity to work out their salvation." 

The Salvation Army, in the same city, has established a 
rescue home for girls, which has won the full confidence of 
the community. The board of education, recognizing the 
rights of these girls to some education, and understanding 
that it would be entirely unwise to placfe them in the schools 
regularly, have agreed to furnish a teacher, who goes to 
the home. 

There is a class of girls, not yet wholly wayward, but 
whose environment makes it almost impossible for them 
to continue in "the road called straight." In addition to 
the few hours a day which the public schools offer for help, 
they need a place where they can be trained to high ideals 
of home and of home life. Some cities are already attack- 
ing this problem, although it is comparatively a new one to 
the public schools. Wherever it has been attempted at all, 
the movement has been made through private individuals or 
some institution, just as much of this advanced experimen- 
tal work is being done. 

The hope is that through beginning early the moral 
supervision of children whose environment is all wrong, a 
large number may be saved from the penal and reforma- 



264 THE TEACHER 

torj institutions. If this can be accomplished, the economic 
balance would be preserved. The money would be spent by 
the state earlier, and eventually much less would be required. 
It is cheaper to train a child for a few years to worthy man- 
hood or womanhood than it is to take care of him for life 
at some prison or house of correction. It should be better 
economy to care for those morally diseased early than to 
pay a heavy tax for their support as criminals through a 
long and worse than useless life. 

The gain in turning the influence of one person toward 
good rather than allowing it to run unguided into crime 
is a matter entirely beyond the human power to estimate. 

One of the most important discussions before the educa- 
tional world today is that of the segregation of the dull 

or feeble-minded children. Followine^ the spirit 
Schools for PIT-.! • P T 1 1 

the Feeble- of the Declaration of Independence that all 
Minded in i 7 i i 

men are born tree and equal, we have acted 

upon the assumed intellectual equality of children in the 
construction of our educational system. Every parent, 
contemplating his child in infancy, dreams of what that 
child will be as he reaches maturity. Those dreams are rosy- 
hued. They endow the unfolded nature with great possi- 
bilities. Position, rank, beauty, genius, power, fame, are 
some of these, but perhaps the most common dream, the 
most nearly universal ambition, lies in the direction of 
intellectual attainment. Sometimes, when the child goes to 
school and measures himself with others, the conviction is 
forced home that he is really dull. This dullness is not 
the fault of the child, and ought to receive as careful and 
considerate treatment as would be given to a physical 
deformity, to astigmatism, to dull ears, or to an anemic 
body. 

Sometimes it is more than dullness: the child may be 



SPECIAL SCHOOLS 265 

feeble-minded. It is hard for the parent to reahze this 
except in extreme cases. 

It has been estabhshed that from one to two per cent 
of the children in our public schools are feeble-minded, and 
yet we liave gone on and on trying to get the same results 
from these children as from the normal ones. 

To know what has been done in the study of such cases 
and what should be the duty to the community as well as 
to these individuals, is now demanded of the teacher who 
would keep up with the trend of modern education. 

At present, the Training School for Feeble-Minded 
Boys and Girls, at Vineland, New Jersey, is the leader in 
this work, and some of the conclusions reached through 
their very scientific investigations and experiments should 
give us pause. Both Principal Johnstone of the institution 
and Dr. Goddard, director of the department of psycho- 
logical research, have lectured widely over the country, and 
the doors of their school swing freely to all who are inter- 
ested in making investigations in this very important 
subject. 

Their work is not haphazard theorizing, but consists of 
careful, scientific, conscientious investigation of hundreds 
of cases, tracing their family history and showing the 
evils that arise from treating these cases as normal children 
are treated. They recognize the utter hopelessness of ever 
developing the feeble-minded above a very low standard. 

Quoting from an address delivered by Dr. Goddard at a 
meeting of the Michigan Schoolmasters' Club : 

"In Michigan you raise apples as we do in my native 
state of Maine. Now, there are good apples and bad 
apples. There are two kinds of bad apples. There are 
those that are hard and sour and bitter. There are those 
that have decayed. 



^66 THE TEACHER 

"I suppose it would not be possible to find in the whole 
state of Michigan any person so foolish as to attempt to 
make a hard, sour, and bitter apple sweet and soft and 
palatable by any process of training or exercise ; — by keep- 
ing it warm or keeping it cold. It would be recognized at 
once that such an apple came from an ungrafted tree, and 
nothing was to be done except to turn to the tree. 

"Equally absurd would it be to attempt to restore a 
rotten apple, by putting it among good apples, or by 
any process of treatment to bring it back to soundness. 

"It is curious that we are so much wiser in our ideas 
about apples than about children, and yet the same holds 
true of children." 

Dr. Goddard then proceeded to show by means of charts 
illustrating the mental condition of families of which he 
had carefully traced the history, that the taint of feeble- 
mindedness is persistent, that the feeble-minded produce 
their kind and only their kind. In conclusion he said: 

"These are a few samples out of many histories that we 
have on file in our laboratory, and let me remind you that 
I am giving you no exceptionally bad picture. This is the 
condition of things that exists all about us. We have these 
mentally defective children in every community. They are 
out in the world, struggling to make a living, but failing, 
eventually become paupers, or criminals, or dependents 
upon their relatives or friends, in any case very probably 
marrying and reproducing their kind at an alarming rate. 
Statistics show that this group of people is increasing at 
double the rate of the general population. These children 
comprise from one to two per cent of the children in our 
schools. They cannot learn to read and write and count 
with any efficiency, and yet we are wasting their time trying 
to teach them these things. The thing that they can do 



SPECIAL SCHOOLS 267 

is to learn to use their hands. Manual training, physical 
culture, and the Hke are excellent for them, and make them 
happier and make them as useful as they can become. 
They often have excellent memories and learn so much by 
rote that we are deceived into believing that they are 
making progress. 

"The problem before the school authorities of the coun- 
try today is the segregation of these children, the selecting 
out from the regular classes and putting them together in 
special classes under specially trained and expert teachers, 
where they shall be trained to do whatever their capacity 
permits, but shall not be worried with those abstract sub- 
jects of reading and writing which they can never do. In 
this way we shall relieve the regular system and we shall 
do more good for these children than in any other way. 
Cease worrying them with books ; teach them to work, and 
thus make them happy. But however efficient we make 
them as workers with their hands, we must never forget 
that if they marry they reproduce their kind, and again fill 
our schools with defective children with whom the same 
process will have to be gone through. 

"The only thing for society to do is to prevent procrea- 
tion in this group, and then in a generation the problem 
will be greatly reduced and simplified." 

Dr. Goddard has been thus fully quoted because he 
has stated the case most forcefully and concisely, and the 
importance of it should reach the mind of every teacher. 

The prevention of this rapid reproduction of the feeble- 
minded is finally a social problem, but the beginning of 
its solution is for the schools. Teachers should make a 
thorough study of what has been already done toward the 
segregation of such cases. Where the practical beginnings 
have been made, where there are already separate schools 



268 THE TEACHER 

for the feeble-minded, where the Binet system is in opera- 
tion for their detection, the teacher should be able intelli- 
gently to assist in the work. Where nothing has been done, 
the teacher should be a pioneer, insisting upon the impor- 
tance of relieving the general body of the schools from the 
dead weight of the hopelessly sub-normal. 

In doing this, the gain is not only in the happiness, the 
correct handling of the feeble-minded, but even in a greater 
degree is it a gain to the normal child and to the excep- 
tionally bright. 

Too much energy has been expended upon the dull and 
the vicious. The others have been held back, dead-weighted, 
and made to mark time in the vain hope of bringing the 
sub-normal even to mediocrity. It is time that this waste 
of energy, money, and native ability stop. 

After all, the advancement of the normal and the un- 
usually bright child is the most important consideration in 
school economy, for these are the ones that are needed for 
the highest advancement of civilization. Do all that can 
be done for the good of the others, but do it in such a 
way that it shall not impede the progress of those who 
are finally to do the world's work. 

It is possible, after all, that the greatest benefits accru- 
ing from the establishment of these various special schools 
General ^^J "^^ be confined to the sub-normal children 

sp?ciai°^ for whom they are instituted. Through these 

Schools experiments, these very scientific experiments, 

we are learning more about education than the whole coun- 
try had learned in a century of the old-fashioned pedagogy.. 
As Mr. Leonard Ayres has so aptly put it, through them 
we are making long strides "toward that school system of 
the future in which the child will not have to be either 
feeble-minded, or delinquent, or truant, or tuberculous, in 



SPECIAL SCHOOLS 269 

order to enjoy the best and fullest sorts of educational 
opportunities." 

Even this brief view of what is being done by special 
schools, and in the closer care of children by the school 
system, makes one wonder if all responsibility some 
of the child will eventually be turned over to fp\"c^|r °^ 
public organization. Are the schools fast be- Schools 
coming a trust, a monopoly for proper, scientific training 
of children.? 

These modern innovations have no intention of eliminat- 
ing the responsibility of the home ; their purpose is to sup- 
plement the home and, where the home is vicious, to offer 
something to counteract that vicious influence, or, in the 
case of the parental schools, to eliminate it entirely. 

There are certain activities for a young life which, to 
be carried on successfully, need numbers and the inspira- 
tion of companions of the same age. Athletics, in all its 
branches, and most of the work in manual training, 
are strengthened and made possible through the school 
organization. 

There is, however, a serious danger in the tendency of 
the home to shirk more and more responsibility as the 
school shows a willingness to assume it. So long as a home 
at all worthy of the name exists, it should be made to feel 
and to bear this responsibility. 

In a school made up largely of the children of the 
wealthy it became necessary for a boy to decide between 
two studies for the semester. The decision rested upon 
the college or the type of college which the boy would 
attend. It was settled that he was to go to college. The 
teacher discussed the matter with him, cleared the situation, 
and sent him home with a perfectly definite question to be 
settled. 



270 THE TEACHER 

The next morning he reported that his mother had been 
out to dinner and that he could not see her. The next 
night she went to the theatre. The third night there was 
some other social engagement which took her time. She 
had no leisure for her son, who, for three consecutive days, 
found it impossible to talk with her. The teacher wasted 
no more time, but made the decision herself. Whether 
the mother ever knew anything about the matter always 
remained a mystery, for she never made a sign either of 
approval or disapproval. 

Another motlicr once commended a boy's boarding-school 
for the excellent influence over her son. "Whv," she 
exclaimed, "he keeps his finger-nails clean now !" 

It may be old-fashioned, but it still seems right to expect 
the home — a well-ordered one — to look after some of the 
details of good breeding and the care of the body. It is 
enough for the schools to assume the responsibility where 
poverty, illness, and other adverse conditions make it impos- 
sible for the home to do it. 

There is a story current that a mother wrote to President 
Eliot, when her son entered Harvard, that she wanted her 
boy to be up and washed by eight o'clock. 

Shall the schools continue to assume responsibility until 
such a request ceases to be a joke? 

A second danger lurks in the possible tendency of teach- 
ers to be too ready to turn over to the special school chil- 
dren who should, in justice to them and to the schools, be 
handled with the normal children. If these schools serve 
their purpose, they should be constantly turning back to 
the classes of the normals, children whom they have cured 
of infirmities. 

Teachers should be keenly alert to detect sub-normal or 
abnormal characteristics; they should be familiar with all 



SPECIAL SCHOOLS 271 

the latest ideas in special education ; they should be compe- 
tent to judge clearly who need this special training and 
who are better off to stand on tip-toe for a little time in 
their present environment, feeling that they will eventu- 
ally be able to hold their own. To be considered either 
abnormal or sub-normal is not the best thing for the child ; 
to be classed there when the classification is not quite a true 
one is a tragedy. 

It must be kept emphatically in mind that the purpose 
of all this special education is the restoring to the normal 
of the greatest number of individuals that can be brought 
back to that class. While it is important that all who need 
this particular consideration should have it, it is equally 
imperative that not one child be thrust into it or kept in it 
unless the necessity is absolute. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
A BALANCE SHEET 

At the close of the business year, it is the custom, in all 
well-conducted enterprises, to take an account of stock, to 
draw off a balance sheet. From this the responsible men 
in the organization decide whether the year has been a 
prosperous one or a failure ; from this they also form 
plans for the coming year and shape a policy which shall 
be followed more or less closely according to the dictates of 
circumstances. 

From the last days in June back to the early ones in 
September is a long stretch of ten months. These months, 
for both teachers and pupils, have been filled with various 
activities, with unforeseen experiences, with unexpected 
results. Before finally closing the school-room door for 
the long vacation, it may be profitable to run an account- 
ant's eve over the various entries and see whether the trans- 
actions of the year have increased the capital or have left 
things in a state bordering on bankruptcy. 

Even though the opening days of school were unseason- 
ably warm, there was in the September breeze a promise 

of coolness ; there was vio-or in everv breath 
The 
September of the autumn air. All returned from the 

summer vacation rested and full of enthusiasm. 
The boy whom you prodded and dragged through his- 
tory, or geography, or arithmetic, the year before, assured 
you that you would have to give him high marks this year 

272 



A BALANCE SHEET 273 

because he was going to earn them. The laziest girl in 
school told jou how hard she was going to study. Those 
who could not carry successfully the regular work of their 
grade, and failed in perhaps one or two studies, planned to 
take up the full schedule and make up this back work 
besides. The troublesome ones confessed to you, in closest 
confidence, the good resolutions they had made. 

But the strangest part of it all was that you returned to 
your work with the same kind of enthusiasm, and you 
entered most heartily and with genuine sympathy into ah 
these hopes, even though back in the hidden recesses of your 
mind the question stirred as to whether all of this could be 
accomplished without the working of miracles. Yet, if 
miracles were necessary, you and they had the power to 
work them. You had that faith in your power which would 
remove mountains. 

This is the one great thing which the summer vacation 
does for all school people. Without it, teachers could 
scarcely endure the strain which the school puts upon them. 
There is something in the bringing of one's work to a defi- 
nite close, finishing it, putting it entirely aside, and seeking 
different experiences for two months, that brings eagerness 
for a renewal of the tasks which were so willingly put aside 
in June. 

The opening days were joyous and everything ran 
smoothly. Teaching was easy and work better than a 
hohday. The momentum gained during the 
summer carried us all along, but little by lit- Mid- Winter 
tie that diminished, and the conscious strain 
was upon us. The boy who was to get only high 
marks began to fail. The girl who was to surprise her 
teachers by her extraordinary diligence sank into her 
old listlessness. Those who made such ffood resolutions 



274 THE TEACHER 

as to conduct, needed attention, and sometimes demanded 
reproof. The days grew darker and shorter, windows had 
to be closed, and the winter storms came, and with them 
irregular attendance. The cars were frequently blocked, 
those who walked arrived through difficulties, and many 
were kept at home altogether because of illness or im- 
passable roads. In fact, school settled down to the hard 
pull of mid-winter. The teacher summoned every bit of 
her courage, kept patience constantly on duty, and held 
both the school and herself under firm control. 

Just as the strain became almost too great, and the pent- 
up restlessness threatened to break bounds, the Christmas 
vacation came as a relief, and at exactly the right time. 

The stretch to the Easter vacation was not so long. 
After that the sun traveled rapidly north, the days were 
longer and fraught with the delightful outdoor life, the 
winged weeks flew past, and now the time for closing school 
has actually arrived. 

Placing June and September side by side, every con- 
scientious teacher is apt to feel, at first, a wave of over- 
whelming discouragement. She had planned so much in 
September; the results in June fall so short of expecta- 
tions. Even though that be true, is it any reason to count 
the year a failure.'' Few ever reach the heights to which 
they aspire, but the ideal must be fixed somewhere above 
the ideals of the past ; otherwise there is no progress. The 
teacher who is satisfied with the year that is behind should 
make it his or her first business to resign and make room 
for a worthy successor, one whom the Divine discontent 
still drives to better things. 

It is right that in September ideals should be set high ; 
it is not failure if in June all of them have not been 
realized. 



A BALANCE SHEET 275 

It is inevitable that a good teacher should feel that dis- 
satisfaction with the final accounting, but it is not wise to 
brood over the condition. Having recognized 

the fact that the results are not all that had Encourage- 
ment 

been hoped, it is then time to sit down delib- 
erately and count one's blessings. It might be well to add 
that this is not a bad thing to do occasionally during the 
year, both for the individual and for a group of teachers. 

In one school there were weekly teachers' meetings. In 
these, the faculty laid their troubles at the feet of the prin- 
cipal. They discussed the stupidity of this girl in arith- 
metic, the struggles of another with grammar, and the 
shortcomings of the regulation black sheep that find their 
way into the fold of every school. After a meeting which 
had been particularly fruitful in this kind of criticism, — 
a meeting that left all feeling that they were making an 
abject failure of the teaching business, someone suggested 
that, at the next gathering, they should speak of nothing 
but the pleasant things; that they should drop, for that 
time, the troublesome pupils, and give a little attention 
to the worthy ones. It is very easy to neglect these, 
for they go along so independently, demand so little from 
the teachers, and carry the responsibility of their work 
so easily, that it is necessary sometimes to bring them 
forcibly to mind. 

The meeting was held as planned, and it and the lesson 
of it made a lasting impression upon the facult3\ Take 
the suggestion, and try it yourself sometimes ; it will be 
well worth while. 

In a similar way, each June let us send our thoughts 
back over the year just closing and see what of encourage- 
ment we can find. Compare the close of each year with that 
of the year before rather than with September ideals. 



276 THE TEACHER 

If you are a high school teacher, the mind goes first to 
the graduating class, to the twenty, fifty, or a hundred 
The Credit J^^^g people who are going now beyond the 
fa^^High reach of your daiW influence. You have lived 

Schools very close to them for one, two, three, or four 

years. The turbulent, restless, irresponsible ninth year 
boy has grown tall and strong, and to be depended upon. 
Possibly he does not lead his class in his studies, some ques- 
tion as to the wisdom even of granting him a diploma may 
have arisen, but the teacher who looks deep into the issues 
of a boy's life knows how he has gained steadily through 
all the years of his high school course. Little by little he 
has taken the responsibility of his own actions. She knows 
some of the battles which the boy has fought and won, and 
when he looks straight out of true manly eyes, the teacher 
is sure that, while he may never accomplish great things 
intellectually, he will make a good citizen, and will be, in 
his own town, a power for right and for sturdy principle. 
The teacher who can feel that she has had a share in this 
development can place something to her credit in the bal- 
ancing of accounts. 

Again, one remembers how that now joyous girl reached 
utter discouragement in her junior year, was ready to leave 
school and give it all up. Wise counsel and encouragement 
at the right time kept her in her place, and her gratitude 
is a certificate of deposit to be honored on demand. Another 
was once willing to desert the more difficult study for an 
easier one. The steadying hand kept him in line, pulled 
him out of the ranks of the snap-hunter, and now he is fitted 
for college, to which he is eagerly looking forward, — 
another item to go on the right side of the balance. 

So the teacher can go over the entire list of graduates, 



A BALANCE SHEET 277 

and, if she has been to the school what she should have 
been, each name will bring to memory some moment of 
helpfulness. 

As the later months in the high school have been lived, 
so, in the main, will go the current of the life to follow. 
No mistakes, no faults of character, no failures, are hope- 
less if the boy or girl is young enough and purposes are 
in the right direction. But the close of the twelfth year 
of school usually finds a young person, in character and 
ideals, about where he will remain through life. These 
may strengthen or weaken as the years go by, but will 
rarel}^ change direction. The teacher who can claim a share 
in shaping such high ideals, directing toward noble pur- 
poses, and strengthening weak points in character, has 
worked well and has not failed. 

Just as men are but children of a larger growth, so the 
things that count for gain in the grades are 
not markedlv different from those which apply other 

^^ "^ Grades 

to the older pupils. 

In the face of many a child can we read the proof that 
the year's labor has not been in vain. 

There are changed expressions on many faces. Impa- 
tient and irritable looks have vanished, and these young 
people, with well lifted chins and level eyes, look back 
at you in friendly confidence. You have helped this one 
time after time control a temper given to violent outbursts, 
until now the mastery comes from within, and often only 
the sympathetic teacher knows when the fire is raging 
beneath. To accomplish this, the teacher must have learned 
never to descend to the level of an angry child, must have 
her own temper well subdued. That the bare teaching of 
studies has been done well, goes without saying; the other 



278 THE TEACHER 

conditions could not exist without faithfulness to the nat- 
ural duties of. the school-room, for these become the means 
by which the rest are accomplished. 

Over in the back of the room sits a boy, tall for his age, 
and heavy in proportion. He came from another school 
with a reputation for hopelessly bad scholarship in spite 
of his good equipment of brains, and with a tendency to 
play truant at every opportunity which he could find. But 
the experienced teacher, looking deep into his eyes, found 
truth at the bottom, and had faith in him. She saw that 
he had come with a desire to do better, and was glad to 
step into new environment. He started well, did his work 
satisfactorily, and was regular in attendance. She did not 
delude herself, however, into thinking that he would go 
straight forward without lapses, — that was too much to 
expect of human nature. One morning his seat was vacant ; 
the next morning he did not appear, and that night she 
learned that he had fallen into old habits. To report the 
matter to principal and parents would have been an easy 
way out of the responsibility, but the wise teacher thought 
first of the boy and the effect upon him. The easier way 
had been tried before and had failed. Instead, she wrote 
him a personal note, which brought him back penitent but 
not humiliated, and the talk which followed proved to the 
boy that he had a friend who understood and who would 
help him. The end of the year finds him in his place with 
high record in all his studies. One such account is a 
valuable asset. 

Perhaps you took, in the fall, a class from some teacher 
who had not worked as earnestly as you. It is a discourag- 
ing problem, but if you were wise enough to recognize it at 
the beginning, you expected little of the class, more of 
yourself. Day by day you have gradually thrust responsi- 



A BALANCE SHEET 279 

bility back upon them, have presented your subject with 
clearness and demanded certain definite results from them, 
content with small ones at first, but insisting upon more 
as intellectual fiber strengthened. Finally the class stood 
upon its own feet with a clear understanding of the subject 
in hand. 

Whoever has done this has succeeded; whoever has done 
this without criticism of her predecessor has added greatly 
to her working capital. 

In entering other accounts, ask yourself a few questions, 
and place the item to debit or credit according to your own 
honest answers. 

Has your school grown in consideration for Bafance^' 
the rights of others? Think back to the days 
when the pupils, new to your methods, thought that because 
there existed little rigorous restraint of external rules, they 
were at liberty to do as they pleased. 

Have these same boys and girls, by June or earlier, 
learned to recognize the rights of others, to be thoughtful 
of you, and to see that their school moved on decently 
and in order .'^ 

Have they learned that the school exists for them, and 
that they carry some responsibility for making it a worthy 
one.^ 

Have the girls who spoke in shrill, nasal tones, modulated 
their voices to the key of the cultured woman .^^ 

Has your school-room become a place where study is 
manifestly the main business in hand? 

Have you trained your young people to such forgetful- 
ness of you and your actions that you can go about your 
work unwatched? A school should have such urgent busi- 
ness of its own, and should be so diligently engaged upon 
it, as to have no time for idly watching the teacher. 



280 THE TEACHER 

Have you seen to it that the lessons assigned each day 
have been suited to the powers of the pupils, or have you 
made that too common mistake of setting tasks commensu- 
rate with your own mature ability rather than with that 
of the untrained mind? 

Having assigned lessons wisely, have you insisted that 
they be mastered? If you have failed to do this, you have 
wronged the child ; if you have done it, no matter if what 
he learns is seemingly of little intrinsic value, you have 
done your duty. 

Has the aim of your teaching been toward simplifying 
a subject, stripping it of all superfluous verbiage, that the 
pupils may get their teeth into the sweet kernel of real 
knowledge? In other words, have you taught, and not 
merely presented a confusion of difficulties? 

Do responsive greetings and kindly looks come to you 
rather than impatient scowls and frowns ? 

Can you sit at your desk and feel that you reach with 
friendly, cordial interest every individual before you? That 
does not mean that the interest need be the same in every 
case; but have you the human element which has touched, 
on some side, each one of the complex natures under your 
charge ? 

Have you won the confidence of all your children? 

Have they faith in your purposes, and faith in your 
sense of justice? 

What have you done to prepare them for new responsi- 
bilities ? 

Are they stronger than at the beginning of the year, or 
have they drifted through the days in idleness and with 
careless spirit? 

Have you brought them a little farther on their way to 
strong manhood and womanhood? 



A BALANCE SHEET 281 

Has the feeling for integrity deepened day by day, so 
that you can trust the school and its individuals a little 
better than at the beginning of the year? 

Above all else, are you a bigger individual, with a 
broader outlook upon life, a deeper sympathy, a surer 
human touch? 

The teacher who can answer such questions to her own 
satisfaction has enough to her credit to liquidate any indebt- 
edness that may have accrued from a few ideals unattained. 



OCT 301911 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




